MSI member Taylor Smart (Perth) advises European scientist on a renewable energy project with the aim to establish a green hydrogen production facility in Australia.
Client's background
Taylor Smart's client is a European scientist, engineer and entrepreneur with numerous energy, rural and commercial enterprises.
The client acquired a pastoral lease in remote Western Australia. At the time the property was used for herding cattle and a fruit orchard. It's the client’s vision to transform the property into a green hydrogen producing facility through solar power and wind power.
The long hours of sunshine make the property ideal for solar power generation and its remoteness make it well suited for wind power.
The property is also strategically located on a main highway near numerous operating mines and mining enterprises. This provides opportunities for supplying hydrogen power for hydrogen powered vehicles passing by the property and operating at the surrounding mines. The current tenure of the land is a pastoral lease.
The Western Australian state government is on the cusp of introducing a new form of tenure to be known as a diversification lease specifically focused on utilising vast amounts of non arable Western Australian land for projects similar to the client’s vision.
How did MSI Global Alliance provide the solution?
Taylor Smart attended to the necessary legal work for the acquisition of the property and are preparing the application for change of tenure to a diversification lease.
As clean and renewable energy is a rapidly developing industry and legislation is still in the midst of being passed (as of Feb 2023). The legal services provided by Taylor Smart so far include those related to:
- Tenure of property
- Australian Foreign Investment Board approval
- Co-ordinating meetings with relevant government departments
- All legal and contractual advice.
Work is still in progress for the client, but the wheels are in motion for an exciting cutting-edge project that will have significant local supply and export potential.
Given the Australian government’s net zero commitment by 2050 and its record funding of almost A$25 billion to clean energy spending committed in its Budget October 2022–23, the work gives Taylor Smart an opportunity to pivot their experience in traditional mining law to be on the forefront of exciting developments in renewable energy.
