Renewables: A Net Zero System by Linklaters

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Renewable Energy

We have an integrated specialist practice with a truly global footprint who specialise in the full range of energy transition projects and the trading of green energy products.

The first of the leading global law firms to see the importance of renewables, we established our dedicated Green Energy Group in 2000 within our wider Energy & Infrastructure team.

The Green Energy Group advises today on all aspects of the energy transition (including renewable energy, CCUS and hydrogen, batteries and energy storage) and has a reputation for advising on the highest profile deals in the market. The group is represented in all our offices and advise on renewable energy in all our home markets (US, UK, Europe and Asia) as well as the CEE, Africa, Central and South America.

The award-winning team has an in-depth understanding of all established renewable energy asset classes, including solar PV, solar thermal, onshore wind, offshore wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower and energy-from-waste and is active on novel solutions like wave and tidal, floating solar, floating wind and second-generation biomass/anaerobic digestion.

We provide a full-service legal solution for these assets to governments, corporates, lenders and investors:

Regulatory and policy design: opening up new markets through advising governments, industry groups and pioneer clients on locally relevant solutions that facilitate international investment;

Projects: development, construction and contracting, offtake, PPAs, financing (including project financing, ECA and Multi-lateral financing, portfolio, HoldCo and acquisition financing and capital markets financing) and divestment of individual assets and portfolios, including some of the worlds’ largest individual investments; and

Corporate and corporate finance: corporate governance, listing, corporate financing, restructuring and reorganisation of renewable energy companies, including through green finance products and IPOs.

Our dedicated approach means our team spend their time (in some cases all their working lives) working in renewables, seeing the key issues from all sides and in multiple contexts. This brings great depth of experience, to solve problems and close deals quickly and efficiently. Many of our clients are pioneers in the sector, constantly pushing the boundaries in terms of geography, scale, technology and financial innovation. We are passionate about the role we play in enabling that ambition: no other firm has the same track record of experience with large scale and/or innovative transactions in this sector.

Solar

Our experience encompasses all the main solar technologies:

Thermal/CSP (tower, parabolic trough, gas and solar thermal hybrids), including advising on the largest examples of such projects in South Africa (Khi and KaXu and Xina)
PV (silicon cell and thin film technology, including floating solar), where we advise on the development, financing and divestment of grid connected and captive installations all over the world. We have followed the solar sector as it has evolved from its traditional markets including UAE, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, into new markets, such as Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In addition to our financing and development work, we have been particularly active on M&A transactions (including in manufacturing) (Rete Rinnovabile, Toul-Rosières PV, Vela Group) working with YieldCos (Abengoa Yield, Saeta Yield) and a range of IPOs and public markets transactions (Solarpack Corporacion Tecnologica, Neoen, EDPR). We advised the IFC on the creation of its standardised “Scaling Solar” product for PV and on the first projects under that programme in Zambia and Senegal.

Wind

Linklaters has one of the best wind CVs in the market advising on both onshore and offshore wind (both fixed and floating). We have been at the forefront of the market since the first windfarm financings in the early 1990s.

Offshore: We are confident that we are the market leaders for offshore wind worldwide, having advised on:
- most of the UK and French projects, including all the recent offshore CfD projects and the 3 recent financings in France Saint Nazaire, Fécamp and Courseulles-sur-mer;
- many projects in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands; and
- all 7 Taiwanese projects, the first Japanese project and many other offshore wind projects in Japan and South Korea.

On the east coast of the USA we are advising on the first utility-scale offshore wind developments in North America. We also have experience advising on floating offshore wind deals in Europe, reflecting our reputation for being at the forefront of opening up this market worldwide. [Six of our partners are recognised among the global top 100 lawyers for wind, evidencing the strength in depth of a team which is closely co-ordinated across jurisdictions.]

Onshore: Onshore wind farm transactions are the most mature part of Linklaters’ renewable energy practice. We have a considerable depth of experience having advised on the first large scale and internationally financed deals in the late 1990s and early 2000’s and on the internationalisation of private sector wind across the globe. This included first-in-country financings in many countries including Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Uruguay, Morocco, Cape Verde and South Africa and well as many other transactions in emerging markets such as Turkey, India, Kenya and Mexico. Recent experience has been focussed on the development of merchant and corporate PPA solutions for assets in this sector as the assets have reached grid parity.

Hydro

We have decades of experience with hydro, advising on strategic assets in developed and emerging markets of local and regional significance (including in the UK, Uganda, Pakistan, Indonesia, Angola, Zambia, Portugal, China and Laos), pumped storage assets and portfolios of run-of-river assets supported by renewable incentives in developed markets in Europe.

We have extensive experience with dealing with government counterparties, PPA issues, cross border electricity supply issues, land and water use arrangements, environmental and social considerations, foreign investment issues and related considerations.

As well as the direct projects work, we regularly advise on joint ventures, divestments, IPOs and other corporate transactions involving hydro assets.

Geothermal

Geothermal processes are considered to be one of the cleanest forms of energy generation. As a renewable source, it is not affected by oil prices and it is the only renewable source of electricity with capacity factors close to 100%. We are at the forefront of geothermal energy projects, having played significant roles in advising the government, financiers, developers and operators on most of the major geothermal projects around the world.

Our decades of experience have successfully delivered numerous high profile global geothermal projects, including Sarulla, Rantau Dedap Weilheim, Miravalles and Indrapura.

Biomass

Since the publication of the EU Biomass Action Plan in December 2005, our practice has evolved to meet our clients’ requirements for specialist expertise in the biomass and biofuels area. We have developed extensive experience in relation to:

developing and financing global biomass and biofuels opportunities
market precedents for the full range of domestic/international fuel supply
helping to navigate the changing regulatory and financing landscape to secure investment in biomass.

Linklaters’ biomass group has advised on the development, financing, acquisition and disposal of biomass projects (dedicated, co-firing, conversion and CHP) across the world including in the UK and the rest of Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Asia. We have extensive experience working on high profile biomass transactions. As a result, we have detailed experience of the particular issues raised by biomass projects, including the challenges of the applicable regulatory support regime (including the transition to Investment Contracts and CfDs), technology and fuel supply/logistics issues.

Energy from Waste

Linklaters has extensive experience in the waste and energy from waste (EfW) markets acting for lenders, sponsors and EPC contractors. The combination of our extensive current waste experience with our market leading environmental practice and experience in structuring bespoke supply and offtake arrangements, means we provide clients with excellent end-to-end advice on waste and EfW projects.

We know the issues arising from the development and financing of waste and EfW projects very well as we have acted, and are acting, on numerous waste EfW projects across the UK and Europe.

Key Contacts