Monday, 21 June 2021

Leading renewable energy consultancy and service provider, Natural Power, has reported 30% growth in 2021 to date, securing several key hires as it gears up to respond to demand.

Jim Adams, Natural Power’s President of North American Operations, said: “It’s encouraging to see the M&A market becoming more active after a slower 2020, and that is already driving growth throughout the industry this year. On top of this, the solar and storage sectors are more active than ever, and we’re providing standalone battery storage owners engineer and independent engineer services in a range of electric power markets including ISO-NE and CAISO.

“From our offices in Seattle, Denver and New York, we’re active on projects across the country including the ISO-NE and CAISO territories. Our blend of experience in a broad range of technologies and wide geographical coverage is enabling the continued expansion of our services for the North American renewable energy sector.”

Most recently, Natural Power has made six new appointments across project management, energy analysis and engineering roles including Lynn Appollis-Laurent who has been appointed as Principal Engineer for Energy Storage. Lynn has 14 years of experience in the electric power industry and was most recently responsible for the design and delivery of utility-scale energy storage projects.

Despite the pandemic, during the last 12 months Natural Power delivered due diligence services on projects totalling 16GW in North America, as well as 36 finance-grade wind energy yield assessments. This included advisory services on 27 proposed wind repower projects.

Notably the team provided due diligence on the Maryland Offshore Wind Project (MarWin) to support Apollo Global Management’s investment decision to commit up to $265 million to acquire an equity stake in the offshore wind energy development company, US Wind; and was appointed by BayWa r.e. Wind LLC as Independent Engineer of Record for its 250-MW Amadeus Wind project located north of Rotan, Texas.

The solar and energy storage team has worked on behalf of some of the largest and most consistent solar tax equity investors delivering due diligence on more than 700 unique projects ranging in size from sub-MW to 500MW totally more than 5GW and with 50 plus energy yield assessments issued or reviewed.

Jim Adams added: “At Natural Power, we have an innovative culture and this drives our ability to respond to client requirements by providing technologically innovative solutions. At the start of 2021, we launched DARC (Detection and Active Response Curtailment) – the first-ever bat smart curtailment technology to simultaneously reduce bat fatalities AND energy losses at wind farms. And it’s this approach to tackling challenges head-on that is further supporting our expansion.”

About Natural Power

Natural Power is an independent consultancy and service provider that supports a global client base in the effective delivery of a wide range of renewable projects including onshore wind, solar, renewable heat, energy storage and offshore technologies. It has a global reach, employing more than 400 staff across 14 international offices. Its experience extends across all phases of the project lifecycle from initial feasibility, through construction to operations and throughout all stages of the transaction cycle.