Renewable Energy

• Advising on business formations, startups, and joint ventures
• Prosecuting, defending, and licensing intellectual property rights
• Advising on site selection and related siting issues, including environmental diligence and local regulatory requirements
• Handling real estate acquisitions, leases, and zoning and land-use issues, including surface rights when minerals have been severed from the surface
• Developing and launching public relations strategies
• Resolving commercial and regulatory disputes before administrative agencies, in court, and in settlement negotiations
• Negotiating design, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts
• Identifying, negotiating, and closing debt and equity investments, as well as tax-credit and other financing alternatives
• Negotiating interconnection agreements, and related operational and maintenance agreements
• Advising on power sales, including negotiations of power purchase agreements (PPA)
• Addressing Jones Act and related maritime laws and regulations for offshore projects, including securing offshore permits and licenses

Solar Power

Drawing on the experience and skills of lawyers across the firm’s core practice groups, we provide end-to-end guidance on large-scale as well as more narrowly focused projects. We have significant experience with issues arising from the interconnections between solar grids and transmission lines, as well as with issues relating to site acquisition, environmental diligence and remediation, surface rights, minerals issues, title, and survey matters. Among other recent matters, we represented a solar energy company in a broad range of transactions relating to the development of solar-energy generation systems and the delivery of solar-derived power to educational institutions, municipalities, school districts, hospitals, airports, and commercial and industrial customers, as well as to utilities or to the grid. We also helped our client form a special-purpose entity and prepared and negotiated documents to acquire rights to customers' property in order to build, operate, and maintain solar-energy systems and related infrastructure.

Wind Power

Like their solar-power counterparts, wind-generated power projects may face local resistance, even from environmental groups that generally support our clients' sustainability objectives. In addition to providing full-spectrum legal counsel on all aspects of onshore and offshore project development, construction, commercial agreements, and maritime issues, we work with elected officials, community groups, and regulatory agencies to identify and respond to their specific concerns. As needed, we also collaborate with public relations agencies to ensure that our clients' perspectives are better understood and to help prevent and resolve disputes. Among recent engagements, we represented an international infrastructure engineering, procurement, and construction company in litigation and related appellate and arbitration proceedings concerning the manufacture and purchase of steel lattice towers and other structures for the construction of a high-voltage transmission line for a renewable energy zone in West Texas. We also recently served as counsel to a national developer and manager in connection with the restructuring of a 183MW wind-powered electric generating project comprising 11 separate facilities.

Offshore wind energy production continues to be a growing area of focus in the energy space and presents a wealth of opportunities for developers looking to invest in emerging technology and for traditional oil & gas companies looking to diversify their portfolio. Drawing upon experience in the renewables, energy, and maritime industries, Jones Walker’s offshore wind energy team capitalizes upon proficiencies across multiple practices in order to effectively meet the challenges of this constantly evolving landscape.

Hydropower, Nuclear, and Other Resources

Hydropower remains one of the cleanest forms of renewable energy production and has been used worldwide to provide vast amounts of electricity to homes and businesses. Members of our team have handled all aspects of cross-border, high-output projects in countries across Latin America and in Asia and the United States, many of which have involved investors, lenders, and other participants from Asia and Europe. We advised our client with respect to credit facility/lender consent matters, limited liability company operating agreements, managing agreements, administrative service agreements, turbine O&M agreements, and remote operations matters. We have also advised clients on issues involved with new-generation, small-scale nuclear facilities in Puerto Rico and Idaho, and have advised clients in landfill gas generation projects, including a landfill gas project in Florida.