Natural Power has appointed William Black as global director of planning.
Black joins the business from the Scottish Government where he was deputy director for onshore electricity policy, energy strategy and energy consents, responsible for nationally significant renewable projects and grid infrastructure.
Jeremy Sainsbury, director at Natural Power, said: “We’re proud to be welcoming William to our team.
“His knowledge and experience will enable us to grow and help both new and existing clients in this fast expanding and dynamic market.”
As a member of the global leadership team, Black is charged with leading Natural Power’s planning department to provide clients with environmental planning advice, to ensure their projects achieve all the necessary planning and environmental permits to be constructed.
This includes projects in the UK, Ireland, France and the United States. He will work across all key sectors of interest including onshore wind, offshore wind, solar, storage and hydrogen.
Black (pictured) said: “We have a very strong team here, with a good mix of developer and policy experience to deliver first in class planning advice to our clients, ensuring both experienced developers and new market entrants secure all the necessary planning consents needed to construct a project, in a timely manner.
“The Scottish Government is very clear in its vision to deliver even more renewables, through its ambition of another 8GW to 12GW of onshore, and then more recently the 25GW of offshore wind associated with the ScotWind projects.
“It is great to be a part of a Scottish-based company that can help Scotland meet this ambition by supporting our clients to deliver their pipeline of projects.”