As we start to move away from the summer months in Dubai, the attention turns to Dubai Arbitration Week 2024, which took place from 11 – 15 November. This year was no different and saw Norton Rose Fulbright host a series of breakfast sessions at our offices in ICD Brookfield Place.

One of these sessions, titled ‘Renewable energy projects in the emerging markets: Avoiding and resolving disputes’, touched on a number of topics such as investment trends and top tips in navigating the arbitration process. The session was well attended by lawyers, consultants and industry professionals.

As we reflect on some engaging discussions with clients and contacts across the industry following the session, here are our four key takeaways as we look ahead to 2025:

1. Many regional projects nearing completion. It is considered that we can expect to see many refinancings coming up and an uptick in M&A activity in the renewable energy space, as many projects are now in an advanced stage of development.

2. The mammoth level of investments in energy projects particularly by SWFs regionally and globally and it is imperative that risks are carefully managed. Some of the key risks on projects include:

1. Performance issues with new technologies; 
2. High exposure to regulatory and geo-political risks;
3. Investor-state claims under multilateral or bilateral investment treaties;
4. Disputes related to licensing, permissions and consents particularly during the development phases;
5. Grid integration issues; 
6. Raw material price/supply chain related disputes;
7. Joint venture and other contractual disputes between parties involved in the development and financing of projects; and
8. Typical construction related claims related to delay, variations, defects, design and costs.

3. Importance of risk allocation and collaboration across teams. Being successful in a dispute or arbitration process is about getting it right from day one. This means appropriately allocating risk at the contract drafting stage. Other key take aways were:

• Carefully consider the allocation of risk (such as warranties, exclusions and indemnities). Get it right at the outset and ensure effective interfacing between contracts; 
• Where investment is in a foreign jurisdiction, consider at the outset whether the investment may be covered by an investment treaty and/or how the project may be better structured to offer treaty protection; 
• Apply best practice in project management - effective document control and management, up to date programmes, etc; and  
• Effective pricing of unforeseen technical issues where new and emerging technologies are being deployed.

4. The landscape in Africa. Investment in renewable energy in Africa has strongly increased in the last two decades. The African continent has also seen a great deal of development in the renewable energy space, particularly in Egypt and South Africa, particularly from a number of Middle East investors and renewable energy entities. Looking to the future, effective grid management and data centres can prove to be revolutionary catalysts. It was not lost on the speakers how large the continent is and how the scale and pace of development differs from country to country. Given the resource potential (hydro, solar, wind) there is immense opportunity for African countries to increase the domestic access to energy whilst also benefiting hugely from energy exports.

In summary, the next 5-10 years promises increasing development in the region, and we look forward to seeing how the landscape changes and how we can best help our clients navigate this.