PROJECT DEVELOPMENT & FINANCE
Energy & Clean Technology
In order to serve our clients in the emerging technology and mature energy sectors—including helping companies transition from venture-backed growth enterprises to key players on the global energy stage—Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has recruited a team of senior attorneys with extensive experience developing and financing major energy and infrastructure projects around the world. Our practice is unique in focusing solely on renewable energy and clean technology and we are frequently involved in first-of-their-kind projects and transactions that are changing the ways in which we power our homes and factories, fuel our vehicles, and manufacture the next generation of plastics and chemicals.
Our project development and finance team has the specialized knowledge and skills needed to help sponsors secure the sites, permits, commercial contracts, and financing required to succeed in the power, fuels, transportation, and natural-resource sectors. We also help energy companies and the institutions that finance them execute a wide variety of project finance transactions, including bank and insurance company financings, bond transactions, joint ventures, project acquisitions and sales, project restructurings, and tax equity and tax credit monetization financings. In addition, we assist with technology commercialization, import/export matters, licensing transactions, strategic mergers and acquisitions, and interactions with federal and state governments and international financing institutions.
Project Development
We help clients develop, construct, and finance all types of energy-related facilities. Our services include advising on permitting, licensing, site control, design, construction, and financing matters, as well as negotiating necessary ancillary agreements for feedstock, equipment purchase, hedging, off-take, tolling, operations and maintenance (O&M), transmission, and interconnection. We bring to each assignment experience in a full range of projects, including traditional thermal (coal and gas-fired) and hydroelectric facilities, and a focus on clean energy with solar (photovoltaic, concentrated, and thermal), wind, waste-to-energy, biomass, biofuel, geothermal, cogeneration, fuel cell, and energy storage facilities, as well as new-technology manufacturing facilities.
Project Finance
Our project finance team has closed transactions for energy companies, investors, and lenders on a wide array of financing structures, including leveraged and synthetic leases, non-recourse project financing, and securitization vehicles. These financings have included bank facilities, letter of credit facilities, and operating lines of credit, as well as U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture loan guarantees, public-private collaborations, and various tax-equity advantaged structures involving investment tax credits, cash grants, production tax credits, Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), and pre-payment bonds. In support of such financings, we provide strategic advice regarding taxation, state and federal regulatory hurdles, and capital markets considerations.
Energy Regulation
We also assist clients in gaining necessary state and federal regulatory approvals of such transactions. To maximize our clients' opportunities, we advocate on their behalf in the development of market rules and incentive programs. We assist clients in minimizing their risks by providing experienced guidance in compliance with complex and evolving government regulations. Our attorneys represent clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in connection with mergers and acquisitions, wholesale electric energy sales, energy trading, qualifying facility certification, and the terms and conditions of transmission interconnection and service. Additionally, we represent clients before state public utilities commissions in contested cases, rulemakings, and complaint proceedings.
