What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Bord na Móna has radically changed its approach to face an even greater challenge: climate change. We announced the new “Brown to Green” strategy, ended peat harvesting, and are now focusing on developing climate solutions in renewable energy, sustainable waste management, carbon storage, and biodiversity conservation.

The renewables legal team advises and supports the renewable business unit through every stage of the construction cycle from planning permission through to the operation of renewable energy infrastructure projects. A key objective of the renewables pipeline is to utilise the Bord na Móna landbank, and the legal team advises on all property matters arising in connection with the various energy projects.

Bord na Móna has an ambitious construction program, including the Derrinlough Wind Farm, Timahoe Solar Farm, Cloncreen BESS and Phase 3 Oweninny Wind Farm, together with a renewable project pipeline of 1.5GW. This year saw us enter a joint venture with SSE for the development of eight windfarm projects. Most recently, the company announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services in relation to one of Bord na Móna’s Energy Parks, in addition to the entry into a corporate power purchase agreement for one of our wind farm projects.

As a general counsel, how do you anticipate and prepare for potential legal and regulatory challenges that may arise, particularly in light of emerging technologies and evolving business landscapes?

We receive monthly horizon scanning reports on upcoming legislative changes and case law from our panel firms which may have a potential impact to our business. Once received, the reports are cascaded to the members of the renewables and wider Bord na Móna legal teams. I ensure members of the renewables legal team attend CPD courses to better inform ourselves on new legislation and training on wider topics such as procurement and construction, to enhance our knowledge on all aspects affecting renewable projects.

How have you attempted to bring the legal department closer to your business colleagues?

We have weekly meetings with various project managers within the renewable business unit to enable them to give regular updates and specific presentations on their respective projects. This allows the legal team to stay informed on ongoing projects throughout the business units and to anticipate upcoming workstreams that will require legal team involvement, as early as possible. We benefitted from weekly meetings with our procurement team, given that for the most part, both teams are required to be involved in every project within the unit.

The legal team also has regular lunch and learns, and gives presentations to the business managers on specific areas of law which are relevant to the business or where there are recent developments or upcoming legislation.

What are some of the main trends in the industry sector you work in in Ireland?

We work on all elements of the transition of the Irish economy towards Net Zero. That is driven mainly by the development, delivery and operation of large scale onshore renewable assets on our 80,000 HA landbank between now and 2035 and the development of a range of other solutions between 2035 and 2050.

Ireland has committed to having 80% of its electricity system powered by renewables by 2030 and to transitioning to a fully Net Zero Economy by 2050. This will be achieved in a large part by the electrification of the economy, whereby wind, solar, storage and flexible technology solutions will fully decarbonise the electricity system, and this will then be used to green other sectors of the economy such as heat and transport. Homes and businesses will increasingly move away from fossil fuels, towards electrification solutions such as electric vehicles and electrical heat pumps.

This also applies to the industrial sector of the economy. Large scale industrial users will have to reduce carbon emissions from their processes, and this will take the form of either new electrical solutions or clean gas solutions such as green hydrogen or biomethane. Bord na Mona is developing projects in both of those areas and are working with transport and industrial companies to use those green fuels to replace existing fossil fuels in their businesses.

We are also advancing plans to develop next generation green fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuels and sustainable shipping fuels which will be needed from 2035 to 2050 to decarbonise those sectors that may not be able to transition to fully electric solutions.