Alternative and Renewable Energy

With hundreds of renewable energy deals closed globally, Milbank is consistently ranked among the world’s top firms when it comes to alternative and renewable energy, and biofuels: wind, solar, synfuels, hydro, geothermal, biomass, ethanol and biodiesel. Chambers and Partners, publishers of the prestigious international guides to the legal profession, ranked Milbank No. 1 nationally in Renewables and Alternative Energy. Infrastructure Journal gave the firm the No. 1 ranking internationally as legal advisors in both Renewable and Wind Energy transactions.

Our leadership in project financing is also consistently validated by the industry’s global arbiters. For 2005, 2006 and again in 2007, Euromoney’s Project Finance magazine named ten of our project financings as ”Deals of the Year.” For 2007, New Energy Finance magazine recognized the firm as the “No. 1 Project Finance Legal Advisor – Clean Energy.” We bring our wealth of experience to deliver world-class, cost-effective legal services to the renewable and clean energy sector.

We represent new developers, as well as some of the largest sponsors in the industry and have been involved in some of the largest construction and project financings of renewable energy to date. Our firm-wide team of renewable and clean energy lawyers in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, draws on the experience of lawyers within the firm in the areas of energy regulation, tax, real estate, securities, bankruptcy, litigation, anti-trust and licensing to provide tailored legal solutions to match the needs of our clients.

Our lawyers have broad experience in all aspects of the development, financing, and purchase and sale of alternative and renewable energy, and biofuel assets. We have assisted clients in regulatory and permitting matters, negotiated commercial project documents such as power purchase agreements, construction contracts, operations and maintenance agreements, turbine supply agreements, and equipment supply and warranty agreements. For project development, we handle permitting and real estate matters, structuring debt and equity financings and arranging tax advantaged purchases and sales of wind energy projects portfolios and companies.

Recent representative deals include:

Babcock & Brown 2008 Wind Power Project (USA)
We represented the lenders in the $600 million wind turbine and ancillary equipment financings for selected Babcock & Brown 2008 U.S. wind power projects.

Middle East IWPP “Deal of the Year” 2007 (Saudi Arabia) – Marafiq IWPP – Project Finance Magazine
Milbank represented the commercial bank lenders and Islamic banks, including lead arrangers BNP Paribas, Gulf International Bank and Samba, as well as the Korean Export Insurance Corporation, in the $3.5 billion Marafiq IWPP in Jubail – the world’s largest independent water power plant. The financing included a $600 million Shariah-compliant tranche – the largest Islamic financing in the power and water sector to date.

North American Renewables “Deal of the Year” 2007 (USA) – Noble Environmental Power – Project Finance Magazine
Milbank represented the lenders, HSH Nordbank AG, New York Branch, in the $485 million financing for the Noble turbine project. The proceeds of the financing will be used for the construction of three wind parks located in New York State: the 100.5 MW Noble Clinton Windpark, the 81 MW Noble Ellenberg Windpark and the 100.5 MW Noble Bliss Windpark. The deal was also named “Environmental Deal of the Year” by Project Finance International magazine.

Asia Renewables Portfolio “Deal of the Year” 2007 (Asia) – Babcock & Brown Global Wind Partners – Project Finance Magazine
Milbank represented Babcock & Brown Wind Partners (“BBW”) as to US law in the $1.45 billion portfolio refinancing of the company’s global portfolio of wind assets. The transaction combined the wind farms into a single portfolio financing with a set of common terms across the entire debt portfolio, providing greater flexibility and achieving savings in cost of funding. The facility is a multi-currency structure with a single BBW borrower for each region and multiple facilities including term, construction, working capital, and letter of credit and guarantee facilities.

Airtricity Roscoe Project (USA)
We represented the lenders, Bayerische Landesbank, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG and Norddeutsche Landesbank on the construction loan and project letter of credit facility for the $399 million wind project. We have represented the lenders regarding multiple Airtricity wind projects.

ENEL (USA)
We represented ENEL North America, Inc. (ENA) in the financing for the acquisition of AMP Resources LLC from AMP Capital Partners, which includes one operating and four advanced stage geothermal development projects located in Nevada, California and Utah.

SunPower Corp. Solar Energy Projects Portfolio
We advised SunPower in structuring, negotiating and obtaining long-term equity investment commitment from Morgan Stanley in connection with the client’s development of a portfolio of solar power facilities.

North American Renewables “Deal of the Year” 2006 (USA) – Horizon – Project Finance Magazine
We recently represented the lenders in the $263.3 million project financing for Horizon Wind Energy for the development of a portfolio of wind projects in a dozen states. Horizon is owned by Goldman Sachs.

Middle East Integrated Power & Water Project (IWPP) “Deal of the Year” 2006 – Al Hidd, Bahrain – Project Finance Magazine
We represented the project sponsor (a consortium comprised of International Power, Suez Energy International and Sumitomo Corporation) in the $1.3 billion financing to fund the acquisition and expansion of the Al Hidd IWPP, at 60 million gallons per day, new build, 1,000 MW and 30 million gallons per day existing capacity IWPP the first privatization project in Bahrain.

“Deal of the Year” – Tiete Project – Brazil
We represented the initial purchasers of 144A bonds in the Tiete Project in Brazil, the proceeds of which (US$300 million) were used to acquire and refinance a system of 10 hydro-electric plants totaling 2664 MW. This deal was named “Deal of the Year” by three industry publications.