Bidwells, a company that looks after the Crown Estate's marine assets, has appointed former-Statkraft boss Andy Fewings as group partner.
Fewings will be responsible for expanding the company's energy & renewables division across England and Wales.
During his time at Statkraft, a business wholly owned by the Norwegian state, Fewings was a key member of the senior development team and was responsible for site acquisitions and the company’s 1GW+ development pipeline.
Bidwells, a renewable energy specialist, currently has 3.8GW of onshore wind projects in development – enough to power 3.1 million homes.
The firm, which manages the Crown Estate's marine assets in Scotland, recently consolidated 28 different services it offers within the ESG sphere – such as battery storage, carbon investment and peatland restoration – to create an end-to-end solution for ethically-minded businesses to reach their objectives and report.
Benefitting from a legal background, Fewings has depth of experience in onshore wind, solar, battery, grid services and hydrogen.
He was a leading member of the team that delivered a project in the first ever round of battery energy storage enhanced frequency response tenders back in 2016 and at that point worked for Element Power, an Irish and UK wind development business that was acquired by Statkraft in 2018.
Said Fewings: 'The UK has a target to fully decarbonise the electricity system by 2035 and reach net zero by 2050. The scale of this ambition brings exciting opportunities in Energy & Renewables.
'We need to reduce energy use by 34% by 2050 while doubling the energy production within that. We also need to decarbonise the heating supply – at the moment gas is used for 40% of UK electricity generation which leaves us exposed to situations such as the current cost-of-living crisis.'
Rosalind Clifford, group partner, head of energy & renewables, Bidwells said: 'We’re thrilled to expand our renewable energy team with four highly skilled and experienced property professionals from the renewable energy generation sector.
'Our work across onshore wind, hydro, solar energy and storage is growing fast and these areas of expertise are increasingly not seen in isolation but as a fundamental part of delivering a climate positive future and ensuring investors’ portfolios of land and property deliver on their sustainability goals.'
Also joining Bidwells’ Energy & Renewables team this autumn as a divisional partner is former land & estates manager at Scottish Power Renewables, Lesley Kelly, alongside Christina Lamond, who arrived as a senior renewables consultant from Scottish Power Renewables. Also from Scottish Power Renewables, senior consultant Kirsty Gordon joined at the end of October.
