Most onshore wind projects don’t fail because of the engineering. They fail, or slip by months and lose money, because of the land underneath them: an owner nobody identified, a delivery route that turns out to run through someone’s farmyard, an agreement left too late and signed on the developer’s back foot.
None of that is unpredictable. It’s just easy to miss if you’re not looking for it early enough. Our new Onshore Wind brochure, which you can read in full below, is built around exactly that: finding land risk before it finds you.
Here’s the shape of it.
First, is the land even viable?
Before a project goes anywhere, our GIS team runs it through a two-stage suitability model: ruling out land with hard constraints, then ranking what’s left by risk and suitability. It’s the difference between spending months on a site that was never viable and knowing that on day one.
Next, who actually owns it?
This is land referencing: searching HMLR, the Scottish Land Register, the General Register of Sasines and the Crofting Register, and confirming ownership and current contact details for everyone with an interest. Where land is unregistered, which happens more than people expect, it means site visits and door knocking. There’s no shortcut, and skipping it is how ownership disputes surface halfway through construction instead of before it.
It’s a pleasure working with the Blackhall & Powis Geospatial team. Whether it be bespoke modelling to assist our search for sites or robust land referencing to identify landowners, the team consistently deliver to a high standard and are always on hand to help. It’s been particularly impressive to see their adoption of innovation and automation to enable them to provide invaluable national scale insights into land.
After that, can you actually get a turbine there?
Turbine components are abnormal loads, and the delivery route rarely sits entirely on the developer’s own land. If you wait too long, third-party agreements for that route get expensive fast: it’s not uncommon to see developers agree to eye-catching, market-shifting terms to protect a delivery date. Our Route to Delivery process works through this in ten defined stages, or “pinch points”, starting with swept path analysis and ending in signed option and lease agreements, so the negotiation happens on your terms and your timeline, not under pressure.
It’s supported 22 wind farm projects across Scotland, negotiated on hundreds of pinch points, and backed a pipeline of 1.4GW of wind generation over nine years.
And finally, before anyone signs, invests, or buys
For developers, investors and asset owners, this all comes together as due diligence: reviewing titles, option agreements and leases for gaps or terms outside market expectations, checking access and grid rights against what’s actually on the ground, and delivering a RAG-rated view of what could still go wrong. It’s the same question as everything above it, just asked at the point of committing capital: has the land risk actually been dealt with, or has it just not surfaced yet?
“Blackhall and Powis have supported us for many years, from site organisation to the acquisition of land rights. Their unmatched knowledge of, and reach within, the UK market... has without doubt played a key role in our successes.”
Land risk doesn’t announce itself at any of these stages. It just sits there until somebody goes looking, and the projects that get built on time are usually the ones where somebody did.
Read the full brochure
Our brochure below covers all of this in more detail, including our full development constraints methodology and site origination work.
If you’d rather talk it through in person, we’re at Stand D14 at the Scottish Onshore Wind Conference today and tomorrow.
Maisie joined B&P nearly six months ago and works as an Assistant Land Manager and Agricultural Liaison Officer (ALO) in our Onshore and Networks team. She grew up around beef cattle, dairy farming, sheep and arable operations, and now spends her days on renewable energy infrastructure projects, working with the landowners and farmers whose ground those projects run through. We asked her what it’s like to work across both worlds.
Looking at the photo below, I see more than a combine harvester in a field and a hard hat on a dashboard. In the foreground is construction: the high-vis and hard hat that have become part of my daily uniform. Beyond the fence is agriculture, the industry I’ve been connected to for as long as I can remember. As an Assistant Land Manager and Agricultural Liaison Officer (ALO), my role sits somewhere between the two.
At 24, with nearly three years in the industry, I’ve worked on projects contributing to the UK’s renewable energy future. Before this role, I worked onshore, supporting an offshore wind farm operation and assisting with overhead cable works and water pipelines. Now I’m helping deliver another infrastructure project that will power homes and communities for years to come.
Growing up on the land gave me an appreciation for the people who work it and the challenges they face. Like a lot of countryside families, I also had a hobby of horses. There was a time I’d more commonly be seen in a riding hat than a hard hat.
That background shapes how I do the job now. One day I might be discussing access requirements with landowners or supporting the Land Management team with stakeholder engagement. The next, I’m alongside construction teams working out how to keep to the programme without breaking a commitment we’ve made to someone whose land we’re on. A field isn’t just a field. It’s somebody’s crop, their livestock grazing, their income, often a family legacy going back generations.
There’s often a moment of tension when I first arrive to meet a landowner. More often than not, the project I’m working on isn’t exactly at the top of their list of favourite things, and they’re expecting a battle before I’ve even stepped out of the truck.
My biggest USP is that, despite looking like a 12-year-old boy most of the time, I can more than hold my own. The mood usually shifts once they realise that I’m a farmer too. I understand the realities of rural life, the frustrations, the long days, and just how much the land means to the people who work it. Whether we’re talking livestock, stubborn sheep, or the biggest tractor in the shed, there’s a common ground that helps break down barriers. Before long, the confrontation they were expecting turns into a conversation.
I’m approachable and genuine, but I also know when to stand my ground. There’s a reason I earned the nickname “The Terrier” in a previous role: cute and friendly enough on the surface, but not afraid to show my teeth when the situation calls for it.
A good example of the value of face-to-face conversations came when a landowner contacted me with concerns that the project was about to fence off a section of his field, effectively cutting his cattle off from almost a third of their grazing land. Rather than getting tied up in a lengthy email chain, I arranged a quick meeting with the site team to walk through the issue on the ground. It soon became clear that there was no real need to install stock-proof crossing points. After all, the last thing anyone needs is a herd of Highland cattle taking an interest in excavation works! By simply stepping the fence line back by 10 metres, we were able to maintain safe separation from the works while allowing the cattle to move freely around the field. A five-minute conversation not only prevented a frustrated landowner but also saved the project both time and money. It’s a perfect example of how understanding the realities of farming and taking the time to listen can lead to practical solutions that work for everyone.
The fence in the photo physically separates the site from the field. Most of my job is making sure there isn’t a divide between the people on either side of it. Communication is the most useful tool I have, whether that’s supporting a farmer during a period of construction activity, helping contractors understand landowner requirements, or working with colleagues across the Land team. Get that right, and disruption is minimised, work keeps moving, and everyone involved comes out of it in a better position than they’d have expected.
That’s the part I’m proud of. These projects represent real investment in the future, and being able to do that work with the agricultural knowledge and values I grew up with is the bit that makes it fit. Horses will always be part of my life, but these days you’re a lot more likely to find me in a hard hat than a riding hat.
The largest two-day agricultural show in the region. The hottest June on record. And a stand to run.
In late June, Donald Proctor, Ian McKenzie and Stuart Anderson from our construction team spent the day at the Royal Norfolk Show, supporting Stephen Attridge from RWE on their exhibition stand and talking to visitors about the Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind project.
Why does a wind farm need an agricultural show?
On paper, an offshore wind farm and an agricultural show don’t have much to do with each other. In practice, they overlap almost completely. Norfolk Vanguard is two projects, Vanguard West and Vanguard East, with turbines that will sit roughly 50 to 80 kilometres out in the North Sea. But the electricity they generate comes ashore through a 60-kilometre onshore cable route that crosses Norfolk farmland. Onshore construction is already underway, offshore work is due to begin in 2027, and each project will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of around 1.5 million homes.
Which means the people with the biggest stake in how the project is delivered are not in boardrooms. They are farming the land the cable route passes through. And in the last week of June, a good number of them were among the 80,000 visitors at the Norfolk Showground. If you want to talk to the farming community in Norfolk, this is where you do it.
A day on the stand
The stand was busy from the moment the gates opened. Until early afternoon the team fielded questions from local residents, landowners and a steady stream of school groups keen to understand the project. Some conversations were technical. Some were curious. All of them were worth having.
Projects on this scale succeed on the strength of relationships with the people who live and work along the route, and there is no substitute for answering questions face to face. A leaflet can explain a cable corridor. It can’t respond when someone asks what it means for their land.
The long game
The rest of the day went on networking: land agents representing clients in the project area, landowners the team already knew, and a few they didn’t. Nothing dramatic. Just the steady work of keeping relationships in good order, which is most of what stakeholder engagement actually is.
It’s easy to undervalue this part of the job because nothing visible gets built during it. But the conversations that make a project run smoothly in year three tend to start at events like this, long before anyone needs anything from anyone. By the time a consent condition needs discharging or an access agreement needs agreeing, it helps enormously if the person on the other side of the table already knows who you are.
Honourable mention to the John Deere 9RX, which drew a crowd all day on sheer scale alone. Some machinery doesn’t need a sales pitch.
Highlight of the day? After eight hours on a stand in the heat, a cold beer with colleagues. Some questions answer themselves.
Worth going?
Would we recommend the show to a colleague who’s never been? Yes. Livestock, machinery old and new, more than 700 trade stands, and a concentration of the local agricultural community you won’t find anywhere else in the calendar. You’ll come away with a better feel for how the people affected by infrastructure projects actually think about their land, which is worth more than most desk research.
If your work touches land in East Anglia, be there.
Jordan Barclay is a Rural Estate and Land Management student at Harper Adams University, currently on summer break and working as an Assistant Land Manager at Blackhall & Powis. Before making the switch to land management, Jordan spent five and a half years as a paediatric nurse, a background that continues to shape her life outside of the office. Here, she shares what a typical Highland Show week looks like when you have a foot in several different worlds at once.
Like many people at B&P, I have a farming background. I support my partner’s family farm and farm shop alongside our own sheep, so a heavy link to agriculture means one thing come mid-June: the Royal Highland Show.
My involvement in the rural community runs wider than the farm, though. I have been a member of Strathmore JAC, my local young farmers club, for many years, serving as club secretary in 2023–24 and as secretary of the Angus Tayside District ever since. And through my previous career as a paediatric nurse, working in A&E at Edinburgh Sick Kids, community children’s nursing, and latterly, as a senior staff nurse in paediatric palliative care, I became one of the Health Hut nurses for the rural charity RSABI. All of which meant that this year’s show week was, as ever, anything but straightforward.
Sunday: Arts, Crafts, and Après Ski
The Sunday before the show has always been a busy one. As the arts and crafts convener of my local club, I am responsible for assembling a team to enter the national competition. This year’s theme was ‘Après Ski’. In addition to coordinating the entry, I created the floral art display and was part of the two-person team that headed to the showground to set it all up. We didn’t win, but it is a great way to bring the club together and put our skills to use away from the day job.
Wednesday and Thursday: The RSABI Health Huts
RSABI (Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution) provides practical, emotional, and financial support to people working within the Scottish agriculture industry, with a mission to support and care for as many farming people as possible. One of the ways the charity does this is through health huts at local shows, livestock markets, and agricultural events across the country.
The huts offer blood pressure checks and on-the-spot support. As many of us know, farmers and those working in agriculture tend to avoid the doctor, so being able to get a blood pressure check at a time that suits them makes a real difference. There have been many success stories: people who had no idea their blood pressure was raised and have since come back to tell us they are now on medication and have made lifestyle changes. Some have been referred on to their GP and from there to the hospital for further tests and investigations. It is always wonderful to see people coming forward and to hear the follow-up from those who took action.
My Wednesday of show week was spent running our first health hut in the cattle lines, catching people in their final preparations before showing the next day. Thursday was on the main stand, speaking to stakeholders, friends, and new supporters of the charity. In line with the RHASS presidential initiatives, we had a strong focus on prostate cancer and spoke with many people who have been personally affected or who know someone currently going through treatment.
Friday: The Show Itself
Friday was finally the chance to see everything the show had to offer. We wandered around the cattle and sheep lines, taking in the best stock the UK has to offer, and checking on how our friends had placed. I am glad to say many came home with tickets.
After spending a bit too much on the bank cards, the late afternoon was spent catching up with friends in the members. It was lovely to walk about, enjoying the day and meeting people, new and old, for a yearly catch-up. I have been fortunate to travel around Europe through the Young Farmers organisation and meet some brilliant people along the way, and we use the Royal Highland Show as our yearly rally catch-up, both through the members and at the Young Farmers Ambassadors Drinks Reception on the Friday evening.
Saturday: Stock Leading, New Connections & a Broken Toe
With a full stock judging team in tow, I spent Saturday as a stock leader for SAYFC. Being what I thought was sensible, I opted to lead a dairy cow, assuming she would be easier to handle than the beef cattle and sheep I am used to at home. Leading someone’s prized cattle around for 200 young farmers competing for Stockman of the Year is quite a responsibility, but the sun was out and, on the whole, ‘Henrietta’ behaved herself. The judge placed her second in her class.
In the afternoon, I was back leading a different dairy cow for young farmers to carry out demonstrations on. My slightly broken toe will tell you how that one went. Still, a learning experience nonetheless.
With the sun still out, I took the opportunity to catch up with B&P colleagues at GAEL Energy and make new connections in the renewables sector, as well as take a look at the innovations and machinery that might one day end up on a farm of our own.
Saturday evening gave the young farmers a chance to come together and celebrate the week’s competition successes. The tug of war team performed brilliantly, and with juniors picking up tickets in the craftsmanship, it was a strong showing all round. We rounded off the evening in the members’, Pimm’s in hand, on a warm and sunny evening that felt like a fitting end to the week.
Sunday: The Final Stretch
Sunday is normally a quieter day at the show, but with the arts and crafts board still to collect, we headed in early to finish any last-minute shopping and take it all down. After five years of being handed the short straw on that particular job, I was pleased we managed it in record time.
We caught up with more friends, watched the heavy horses, and saw our neighbour place reserve champion for turnout. To round things off, we stayed for the showjumping Grand Prix. Not quite Silverstone, but engaging and tense all the same.
Why Shows Like This Matter
Shows like the Royal Highland are so important for everyone in the rural sector. They tend to land around silage time, which makes it all the more important to carve out time to step away, socialise, and reconnect with friends from all over. Rural isolation and loneliness remain serious concerns, with rates higher than ever, and events like this play a genuine role in helping to address that.
For those of us at B&P working closely with rural landowners and communities, weeks like this are a reminder of how much happens beyond the desk. The relationships, the understanding of rural life, and the awareness of the pressures people face all feed back into the work in ways that are hard to quantify but genuinely matter.
To find out more about RSABI and their Health Huts, visit: https://www.rsabi.org.uk/health-huts/
This week, a few of the B&P team are swapping the office for the showground as we head to the Royal Highland Show.
As the highlight of the Scottish agricultural calendar, for us the show is about being out among the farming community we know well. Many of our team, friends, and families come from a rural background, and some will be showing livestock, volunteering on stands, competing with young farmers and catching up with friends at this year’s event. We’ll be there to cheer them on.
Catching up with the community
Years of working alongside the agricultural sector also means we know a huge number of people in this community. So, the Highland Show is the perfect excuse to catch up.
While the show is still very much work – for us and our farming friends – it is also one of the few social occasions throughout the year for many in the agriculture sector. We’re looking forward to swapping stories with familiar faces and people we’ve worked with over the years.
It’s also a great chance for members of our team who don’t come from a farming background to get stuck in and get to know the community better.
Come and say hello
As always, we’ll be keen to chat about the energy industry and hear what opportunities and challenges those in agriculture are seeing. But at B&P relationships are at the heart of everything we do, so the social side of being in the field is just as important to us as the work aspects.
So, if you’re going to the show, look out for the B&P team. You’ll most likely find us in the cattle lines, looking at the machinery or snacking in the food hall, maybe after 5 o’clock in the Herdsman. Come and say hello. Thursday and Friday are probably your best bets hopefully by Saturday we will be celebrating some show success!
Health and safety have always been central to how we work, from holding the right certifications to maintaining high standards across the business. But as B&P grows, we’re building something more deliberate: a stronger culture around health, safety, environment and quality. And in true B&P style, we’re doing it a little differently.
Mark Cook joined us at the start of 2026 in a newly created role, HSEQ Manager. He brings a refreshingly human touch to a subject that can often feel dry, putting people and conversation at the heart of how we approach it. And he’s starting where it matters most: with the H.
Our three pillars of HSEQ
Underpinning our new approach is a framework built around three key policy pillars:
- Safe and Well
- People and Planet
- Leading with Quality
All three matter, but there’s a deliberate order to them. Mark is starting with the first, putting health and wellbeing front and centre, and that is where his early work has been focused.
Pause and Prevent
“The H for Health is the bit we often forget,” says Mark. “I focus on putting health first. Our team being fit and well matters, because if you’re not well and you’re out on site, that’s a risk.”
It’s a simple idea, and it reframes how we think about safety. Looking after yourself isn’t separate from doing your job safely. It’s part of it.
Mark uses the analogy of looking after your car: regular checks, rather than waiting for something to break down before you get it fixed. He talks about staying two steps ahead, reminding the team to pause and prevent, so the small things get caught before they turn into big ones.
“I want to get people to pause before getting in the car,” he explains. “To make sure they feel OK. Check the weather, check the traffic. Pause and prevent. Then the second part of that is monitoring how they feel throughout the day, making small adjustments as it unfolds, particularly when switching environments, from home to office, office to site. We’re moving into a different headspace, so it’s worth taking a moment to make sure everything is OK. It’s about much more than doing risk assessments. It’s about identifying risk and building our intelligence and systems around it.”
There’s real substance behind that idea. B&P backs it up with a serious spread of support for its people. For anyone who needs someone to talk to, there’s Virtual Lucy – free and confidential counselling available day or night, no referral needed and no questions asked, alongside a team of trained Mental Health First Aiders across the business. Through cover with AXA and Canada Life, every employee has access to far more than most people expect: a 24/7 GP they can call from home, physiotherapy, specialist referrals, counselling sessions, income protection, and legal and financial support. And to help people build the skills to look after their own wellbeing and support their teams, there’s professional one-to-one coaching and a growing set of self-paced courses on Learn Nest – B&P’s virtual learning environment.
It’s a real investment in people’s health rather than a list of perks, and part of what makes B&P a good place to build a career.
Making it Personal
The support is there. However, Mark’s real focus, though, is on making this personal.
“I’m the first to admit that health and safety can be a dry subject, so I want to make it personal for people,” he says. “I’m not the safety police. That’s not how you get people on board.”
To bring these ideas to life, he’s launched HSEQ Brew Time. It’s half an hour in every team member’s diary each month; an open invitation to step away, grab a coffee and have a proper conversation. It isn’t a tick box exercise or a lecture from the front. It’s a chance for people to get involved, ask the questions on their mind, and feel part of how the business approaches safety. Topics so far have ranged from fire safety and accident reporting to mental health and risk assessment.
The risk assessment element was to really highlight lone working. Lone working can often be misconstrued as being big brother-like when it comes to systems and knowing employees’ locations.
However, the real focus within the risk assessment session was on when exactly we need lone working and when not.
We don’t exactly want to know you’re at the 9th hole on the golf course on a Friday afternoon; it’s about risk management, and for Mark, that was exactly the message he wanted to deliver.
Mark set the tone early, kicking off the focus on wellbeing on Time to Talk Day and speaking openly about his own experience of depression and an ADHD diagnosis. “I’m being open from the start, and that encourages others to do the same.”
It’s not all quiet conversation, either. Last month saw ‘Movement May’ – a team challenge focused on physical wellbeing. The challenge began among the team last year and quickly turned competitive. Shirley Henderson set the bar in 2025, averaging a staggering 30,000 steps a day, then bowed out this year, presumably to give everyone else a fighting chance. The team took full advantage of this. And, on the final day, with the top spot still up for grabs, Lenz Bartelt walked from Glasgow to Falkirk and back to lock in his win. By the time the month was over, 24 colleagues had racked up a combined 7.5 million steps.
For Mark, the focus was never the leaderboard, though. These conversations aren’t meant to begin and end with an awareness month, and he uses moments like Movement May to keep them going all year round.
He’s also introduced safe space learning sessions: a relaxed, supportive clinic where anyone can come along and ask questions. “I don’t want people to be frightened of health and safety,” he says. “It’s about talking things through when they come up.”
Robust Systems and a Human Approach
At the same time, Mark is strengthening the policies, processes and procedures that sit behind all of this, making sure our systems are robust and ready for what’s ahead without losing what makes B&P, B&P.
Health and safety shouldn’t be an eye roll or a box you tick to keep someone happy. It has to be something the team can live with day-to-day, and something that supports them. Get that right, and the systems look after everyone, rather than just covering the business.
This is where the other two pillars, People and Planet, and Leading with Quality, come into focus. Over the coming months, Mark will lead B&P through our ISO certification renewal and the work towards EcoVadis recognition. EcoVadis assesses how a business performs on sustainability and responsible practice, and provides a clear, structured roadmap for improving our ESG performance year on year. It’s a meaningful step, and a practical one: a way of holding ourselves to a standard and knowing exactly where to push next.
A Lasting Legacy
Mark’s fresh approach and his enthusiasm for all things HSEQ have slotted into the B&P culture perfectly. Creating this role and getting the right person into it says a lot about how seriously we take this. It’s a real commitment, not a gesture.
The culture around safety and wellbeing we’re building now will have a lasting, positive impact on our people, our projects and our clients.
“I want to be able to look back in two to three years and see the journey we’ve been on,” says Mark. “It’s exciting to develop a culture and systems that will leave a lasting legacy.”
The water sector is entering a major period of investment over the next few years. With a potential £104bn programme across England and Wales and Scottish Water delivering a £6bn+ investment cycle, the scale of projects to be built, upgraded and maintained is huge.
It’s exciting, but water companies will be under significant pressure to deliver on time and on budget. Working with the right partners will be key, and that’s where we come in. Our water service has the depth of experience and expertise to support this transformation in the water industry over the coming years.
Diving into the challenge
At B&P, we don’t shy away from a challenge, instead, we dive right in. We get under the surface, embedding ourselves in projects to work in partnership with our clients from early-stage strategy all the way through to project construction.
We know the biggest challenge for water projects is land. Major infrastructure projects stall when land can’t be accessed, negotiations drag on or complex title issues emerge halfway through a programme. Our whole approach is built around solving these problems to keep projects moving.
How we keep water projects flowing
We head all of this off at the outset with detailed land referencing and GIS modelling to identify and mitigate access issues and establish a detailed land strategy.
At the heart of our approach is our extensive expertise in stakeholder engagement and negotiation. We understand how to build and maintain relationships with the right people – the landowners, planning authorities, and statutory body stakeholders. Being a specialist third party, we can engage on behalf of water companies in a way that’s constructive and independent – often making conversations easier and reaching agreements more quickly than if the client were negotiating directly.
Our core service brings together:
- GIS and land referencing
- Land acquisition
- Rights negotiation and compensation claims
- Stakeholder engagement
- Project management
- Valuation
- DCO and CPO support for larger programmes
As well as a dedicated team with deep experience in working with water companies across the whole of the UK, B&P has an extensive background in utilities, energy and renewables projects.
An agile approach across the UK
With an agile team and offices across the UK, we’re well-positioned to support projects in England, Wales and Scotland. We’re also building a network of strategic partnerships so we can easily and quickly scale up to support the biggest programmes in the sector.
If you have a water sector project on the horizon, no matter the scale, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact us
Gill Froud, Land Assembly Director: Gill.Froud@blackhallpowis.com
Linda Turner, Director of Water Infrastructure: Linda.Turner@blackhallpowis.com
The global energy landscape is shifting fast, and nowhere more so than in Africa, where new markets are emerging, and investment is accelerating.
For energy developers with the ambition to operate internationally, we have the people, the contacts and innovative technologies to support you.
Here’s what we’re seeing, and where the window of opportunity is wide open.
Emerging Opportunities in Africa
Africa is home to more than 1.5 billion people across 54 countries, yet around 600 million of them still have no access to electricity.
Central to Africa’s energy transformation is the Mission 300 initiative to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030.
According to the Energy Industries Council (EIC), over 818 energy projects have been announced across Africa since 2020, with an estimated $929 billion in capital expenditure expected on projects starting up by 2031. Of those, 436 are renewable and power generation projects, with a further 91 energy transition projects due to start by 2031.
A key opportunity for developers is the South African Power Pool (SAPP) – a 12-country electricity market spanning Southern Africa. B&P are already working with and talking to the developers involved.
Connecting Clients on the Ground
While the opportunities in Africa are huge, there are, of course, challenges too. Relationships, local presence, and timing are critical. Being in the right room or knowing the right people makes a huge difference.
Our regular, on-the-ground presence in Africa is one of our most valuable assets. This is combined with our well-established contacts and strong relationships with EIC and the Africa Scotland Business Network (ASBN). Our Director of International Development, Pete Gettinby, has recently spoken about the opportunities and challenges at events for both organisations.
These connections can’t be built from a desk in the UK, and it’s something developers who work with us benefit from directly.
It’s not just about who we know, though. From a technology perspective, our industry-leading geospatial analysis can help developers identify viable project locations and assess grid capacity for a wide range of projects, such as data centres, analyse large-scale crop health, and map mining activities.
Led by our research, land information and GIS specialists, we utilise high-resolution satellite imagery and site suitability modelling to provide actionable insights.
Wider Global Opportunities
Africa is, of course, not the only market where we can support clients. Our International Business Development team are leading engagement with partners in France, enabling access to project pipelines and procurement processes linked to the delivery of the country’s ambitious new energy roadmap.
B&P also remains firmly committed to the Middle East, where we have built strong client and partner relationships and continue to support large-scale energy developers and projects.
Why choose B&P as your International Business Development Partner?
Four things that set us apart when it comes to exploring international energy markets:
- We’re already there: our regular presence on the ground in Africa, France and the Middle East means we know the markets, the projects, and the people.
- We cover the full development journey: from site suitability and grid assessment through to geospatial analysis and stakeholder engagement, we can support developers at every stage of early-phase development.
- We bring geospatial expertise: our mapping and remote sensing capabilities can be applied to support a wide range of projects, giving clients a richer picture of the environments they’re developing in.
- We’re part of a wider network: B&P is connected to the Africa Scotland Business Network and works alongside organisations including the Energy Industries Council – ensuring our clients benefit from the latest market intelligence and industry relationships.
If you’re an energy developer looking for international opportunities, or already active and looking for specialist support, we’d love to talk.
Get in touch with the B&P International team to find out how we can support your next project.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re attending All Energy 2026.
Our stand at B20 was designed and built by our friends at GAEL Energy – onshore wind O&M specialists who maintain over 400 turbines across the UK, and who clearly had some ideas about how to make an impression at a conference.
We think they nailed it.
a bit about us
Blackhall & Powis was founded in Glasgow in 2017 by people who knew energy infrastructure from the inside – not from boardrooms, but from the land, the sea, and the communities at the heart of every project. Nine years on, we’re over 100 people across eight UK offices.
We have five service delivery divisions:
-
Geospatial Services: providing GIS system development and analysis, land referencing, remote sensing and multidisciplinary research.
-
Land and Property Services: providing land assembly support to energy projects (onshore and offshore generation and storage), data and linear projects (electricity, rail, gas and carbon, water and telecoms).
-
Planning & Development Services: providing planning, project management, stakeholder engagement and environmental support to onshore and offshore projects, as well as commercial fisheries and marine services for offshore projects.
-
Construction Phase Services: supporting agricultural liaison, strategic land management and compliance.
-
International: utilising the wider B&P business to reach new markets, providing our full suite of services and specialising in research. We are currently active in France, Southern Africa, and the Middle East.
If you’re trying to get energy infrastructure built, we’ve probably done something similar before.
OUR NEW BROCHURES
We’re launching four new service brochures for All-Energy this year, and they’re worth a read if you want to understand what each part of the business actually does.
Real projects, real people, proper detail.
Our new Construction Services and International brochures will follow in the near future. Watch this space.
KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING
We will have over 20 people at the SEC across the next two days, covering the full breadth of what B&P does. If you have a conversation at our stand and want to follow it up, the best place to start is info@blackhallpowis.com – just mention who you spoke to and we’ll make sure it gets to the right person.
Also at the stand is GAEL Energy. If operations and maintenance come up in conversation and you want to know more, you can find them at gaelenergy.co.uk.
The energy transition is the defining challenge of our generation. We’re glad to be doing this work – and hope you stop by.
Not content with our expansion into England and Wales, Blackhall and Powis is growing its operations internationally too.
It’s an exciting time with the business developing in a number of areas, but the appointment of a Director of International Development and a Director of Research, along with the establishment of our new office in the UAE, marks a big step in our strategic mission to support the energy and infrastructure both at home and abroad.
Coming on board to head up our international operations is the highly experienced and well-connected Pete Gettinby, formerly of RSK.
Pete’s extensive experience in the green energy and infrastructure sector, combined with his detailed knowledge of the overseas market, will be a huge asset to our business and our clients.
Having worked for the last few years in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Pete brings with him a wealth of established contracts and potential projects. Already based in Dubai, over the last 12 months he’s helped identify over £350million of potential projects in the region.
Pete is joined by David Cooper as Director of Research. David has an extensive geospatial and interdisciplinary background, having completed his PhD in geosciences from the University of Edinburgh and teaching on their master’s programme in Geographical Information Science. David has published research utilising environmental modelling across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, drone surveying within Eurasia, and zoological analysis within the UK.
David has worked with Blackhall & Powis for a number of years, implementing bespoke GIS models for the renewable energy sector and leading international interdisciplinary research projects for our clients.
Cementing our overseas presence is a progressive step from the international projects we already completed or have underway in Iraq, the USA, Africa and Malaysia.
We’ll be offering all of our core services to international clients and projects with a particular focus on geospatial services and marine and offshore infrastructure support. We have identified a need for the creation of spatial data in difficult to access, hazardous, and data-deficient environments, and are therefore offering satellite remote sensing integration into our geospatial workflows.
In addition to growing our own operations overseas, we’ll be offering external consultancy services to support international development for other businesses in the energy and infrastructure sectors.
This will make use of the excellent network Pete has already established. In particular, strong links to the Energy Industries Council and Scottish Development International, both of which provide great support to our industry.
Pete said: “This is the right progressive step to take the offering and experience of B&P further afield and to use our expertise and contacts to help other companies who are looking for these services in this booming region. I’m excited to grow B&P internationally and to help other businesses in our sector grow.”