Firm's wind of change

City firm Norton Rose has joined forces with companies from the worlds of banking, insurance and energy technology to back the development of wind farms.

Norddeutsche Landesbank, Bank of Scotland, NIB Capital Bank, PB Power and risk specialist Marsh UK are also in the consortium called Aeolus after the Crown Estate granted leases for 18 off-shore wind farms.These will cost around 1.6 billion, with each providing energy for up to 70,000 homes.Norton Rose stepped in to develop standard form documentation for the projects after it was approached by Norddeutsche Landesbank, although it has been involved in smaller 'green' projects for around ten years.Aeolus will recover the firm's fees from project developers.Energy group partner Andrew Newbery said: 'We became really interested two years ago, following the Kyoto convention [on climate change] and the EU reaction to it.

Now the Crown Estate has granted these leases, it is not just a talking shop, and we have pulled a team together to help standardise the market.'He said renewable energy is now 'an imperative' for all governments, and the consortium would test wind-farm projects in the UK before expanding.'Each European country now has a renewable energy target to meet, as have many others across the world, and this is the only way they are going to be able to meet their obligations according to the timetables,' Mr Newbery explained.Paula Rohan