LOS ANGELES, December 21, 2010 – The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by Global Project Finance Group partner Karen Wong, represented Abengoa Solar Inc. (“Abengoa”) in securing a $1.45 billion Federal Loan Guarantee from the US Department of Energy (“DOE”) for its Solana parabolic trough concentrating solar plant. Located near Gila Bend, Arizona, the 250-MW project is the first large-scale solar plant in the United States capable of storing the energy it generates. Solana will produce enough energy to serve 70,000 households and will avoid the emissions of 475,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared to a natural burning gas power plant.
“Solana is only the sixteenth clean energy project to receive loan guarantee support from the DOE and followed the closing of the financing for one of the world’s largest wind farms, also with DOE support,” said Ms. Wong. “Milbank’s back-to-back work on two of the world’s biggest clean energy projects, both of which received support from the DOE, demonstrates the firm’s leadership in the financing and development of renewables projects.”
Abengoa estimates that the Solana project will create between 1,600 to 1,700 new construction jobs and more than 85 permanent jobs. Furthermore, around 75 percent of the equipment and supplies required to build Solana will be manufactured in the United States. Additionally, Abengoa signed a power purchase agreement with Arizona Public Service Company, Arizona’s largest electric utility, to buy the energy produced by Solana for a period of 30 years.
Assisting Ms. Wong on this transaction include Intellectual Property Group partner Lawrence Kass, Global Corporate partner Lewis Putman, Tax Group partner Mark Regante, Global Project Finance senior associate Sujay Parikh, and Global Project Finance Group associates Alfred Wang, Amy Turner, Ana Passos, Cathy Teevan, Joanna Grossman, and Vanessa Ortblad.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation and arbitration teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals.
The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC.