Local Government Lawyer

SharpeEdge

In the first episode of the series, Steve Gummer and Stephen Cirell are joined by UK solar PV industry stalwart Ray Noble, MBE. Ray has been named a Member of the British Empire, acknowledging his services to the renewable energy industry. He joined BP Solar in 1999, later establishing his own consultancy, Solar BIPV, advising some of the world’s largest solar manufacturers.

In this podcast, they explore the opportunities and challenges in the solar space, the business case for solar, battery storage, current government policy, the wider framework and local authority strategies. The podcast follows on from the Green Steve’s previous article ‘A seep dive into solar PV’, which can be found here.

About the speakers

Nicola Khon

Steve Gummer

Steve is the Head of Net Zero at Sharpe Pritchard LLP. Previously at Allen and Overy, he returned to Sharpe Pritchard in 2017.

Steve has extensive experience on regulated and net zero projects. He has acted for investors, utilities, government and innovative developers on all types of projects.

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 Steve Cirrell

Steve Cirell

Stephen Cirell has worked closely with the Association for Public Service Excellence for over 25 years and also undertakes consultancy work for APSE Energy on clean energy and related matters.

Stephen Cirell has also been a prolific writer on local authority issues and a well known contributor to books and magazines. For a number of years, he ran his own Public Sector Energy website and newsletter, which kept the public sector informed on key developments in clean energy. He still writes blogs and articles, the latest of which are reproduced here.

Click here to view our archived articles or search below.

ABOUT SHARPE PRITCHARD

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We are a national firm of public law specialists, serving local authorities, other public sector organisations and registered social landlords, as well as commercial clients and the third sector.

Our team advises on a wide range of public law matters, spanning electoral law, procurement, construction, infrastructure, data protection and information law, planning and dispute resolution, to name a few key specialisms.

All public sector organisations have a route to instruct us through the various frameworks we are appointed to. To find out more about our services, please click here.

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OUR RECENT ARTICLES

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July 22, 2026

Judicial review of Local Government Reorganisation

As the government pushes ahead with the biggest overhaul of local government in a generation, a growing list of councils, including Essex, Norfolk, Hampshire and Suffolk, are testing whether the courts will intervene. Our experts, Simon Kiely, Olivia Peake and Oliver Dickie go…
July 17, 2026

NEC Annual Conference 2026: Practical Reflections

Rachel Murray-Smith, Jane Crees and Helen Batter share the details of the NEC Annual Conference 2026. The NEC Annual Conference 2026, themed “Scaling Excellence in a New Age of Delivery”, brought together public sector clients, project leaders and industry specialists to discuss…
July 17, 2026

The ERA – Discrimination Webinar

Julie Bann and Christian Grierson host a pre-recorded webinar on reforms relating to discrimination and workplace equality.
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