Great British Energy invests £40m in UK green hydrogen producer as Amentum-led JV wins £300m owner's engineer contract for Wylfa SMR — UK's first small modular reactor
Two major UK clean energy transactions landed on the same day, together marking a significant step-change in the pace of UK energy infrastructure investment. Great British Energy (GBE) — the UK's publicly owned energy company — has committed £40 million to a UK-based green hydrogen production company. The investment, advised by Burges Salmon, backs expansion of the company's green hydrogen (hydrogen produced using renewable electricity rather than fossil fuels) facility in England. The transaction follows GBE's earlier £86.5m commitment to ITM Power's South Yorkshire electrolyser project, establishing a clear pattern of GBE deploying capital into UK hydrogen manufacturing rather than imported technology. On the nuclear side, Great British Energy – Nuclear has awarded a £300m contract to an Amentum-led joint venture to act as owner's engineer on the UK's first SMR (small modular reactor — a compact, factory-built nuclear reactor) project at Wylfa, Anglesey. The role involves providing independent assurance and expert technical advice across design, safety, engineering, construction, and commissioning. This is the first major engineering contract for what is expected to be a multi-billion-pound programme. Taken together, the two transactions illustrate the breadth of GBE's investment mandate across both green hydrogen and nuclear technology, and the commercial scale of the UK's clean energy infrastructure pipeline. The Wylfa SMR contract in particular is a harbinger of substantial legal and regulatory work as the project progresses toward planning and licensing stages.
Why this matters
GBE's active deployment across hydrogen and nuclear simultaneously activates distinct but overlapping practice areas. The hydrogen investment generates project finance, energy regulatory, and technology transfer work as the facility scales; the Wylfa SMR contract is the opening move in a development pipeline that will eventually require nuclear site licensing under the Energy Act, planning consents, grid connection agreements, and long-form construction contracts. The 'why now' is political: the UK government is accelerating both hydrogen and nuclear as twin pillars of its clean energy security strategy, with GBE as the investment vehicle. Burges Salmon is explicitly named as adviser on the hydrogen deal, confirming advisory mandates are live.
On the Ground
On an energy infrastructure matter like these, a trainee would be preparing licence condition summaries for the relevant energy regulatory regime, coordinating regulatory filing documentation with Ofgem or the nuclear regulator as applicable, and reviewing grid connection agreement terms to understand offtake and network access conditions.
Interview prep
Soundbite
GBE's dual hydrogen and nuclear commitments make it the most active single client for UK energy project finance in 2026.
Question you might get
“What regulatory approvals would be required to bring the Wylfa SMR project to financial close, and which regulatory bodies would be involved?”
Full answer
Great British Energy invested £40m in a green hydrogen facility and simultaneously awarded a £300m owner's engineer contract for the UK's first small modular reactor at Wylfa — two transactions that confirm GBE as the central counterparty in UK clean energy infrastructure deployment. For law firms, this matters because both transactions generate multi-year advisory mandates: project finance and regulatory clearance on hydrogen, and nuclear licensing, planning, and construction contracts on the SMR side. The wider picture is that the UK government is using GBE as a direct investment vehicle to de-risk private capital entry into nascent clean energy sectors, accelerating the pace of deal flow. This suggests sustained pipeline for energy practices at firms with nuclear and hydrogen regulatory depth.
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