Gareth is a lawyer who specialises in the consenting, financing, acquisition and disposal of renewable energy projects, including solar and energy storage. He understands the full lifecycle of these projects and is well-used to balancing regulatory and commercial factors. 

Gareth helped pioneer the current era of utility-scale, ground mounted solar farms in the UK, through advising on the origination, project development, consenting, construction procurement and divestment of the 350MW Cleve Hill Solar Farm, in Kent, England. That market leading project began construction in 2023. It triggered a suite of solar projects, most in the 200MW – 1GW range, which in England and Wales are classed as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (“NSIPs”) and require consent from the Secretary of State for Energy Security & Net Zero. Gareth is advising on several of those solar NSIPs, including: Mallard Pass, Gate Burton, Cottam, West Burton, Botley West, Frodsham, East Yorkshire, Fenwick and Maen Hir Solar, plus others not yet in the public domain.

Gareth is a member of the National Infrastructure Planning Association and Solar Energy UK, and led those organisations’ Working Groups that submitted evidence to consultation on energy storage and the review of the National Policy Statements (NPS) in England. He was called to give evidence at the hearing in January 2022 held by the UK Government’s Select Committee’s inquiry at which he gave oral evidence on how those policy statements could be improved for renewable energy projects. The committee adopted that evidence in its report to Government and it is also reflected in the draft National Policy Statements published for consultation in March 2023.

In September 2023, Gareth received the Innovative Lawyers in Energy Security and Transition Award, for “Revolutionising the Solar Industry”, in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Europe Awards 2023.