Alternative & Renewable Energy

The attorneys on our team represent owners and developers of solar, wind, biomass, and other energy facilities generating electricity from alternative or renewable sources. We also work with investors supplying capital and financing for such projects. As the landscape of legislation, federal and state tax credits, and other programs that dramatically impact economic efficiency constantly changes, our clients rely on us to stay on the cutting edge of developments in the use of these incentives by owners and investors. Our goal of providing a big-picture perspective while still seeing the details of each individual project enables us to assist our diverse client base with the specific needs unique to each installation.

We assist developer clients with every step of the life cycle of an energy project using an integrated approach, including site acquisition; structuring ownership to facilitate the use of available tax credits and incentives; conventional and alternative financing; the leveraging of state and local government economic development programs and incentives; the negotiation of physical and virtual power purchase agreements and solar energy procurement agreements; and permitting and interconnection issues.

The Alternative & Renewable Energy practice is international in scope. In addition to representing foreign companies that develop their own energy projects in the U.S., we also assist international clients that need help in selecting and acquiring American site locations for the manufacture of solar panels, modules, inverters, wind turbines, and other equipment and components incorporated into renewable energy facilities.

The team also works closely with colleagues in the firm’s Economic Development practice in order to identify the most appropriate tax abatement, financing, and other economic incentive programs that can be used for a particular site. The detailed knowledge of what is available at a state or county level, along with personal relationships with the relevant decision-makers, can make a difference in the economic viability of a project.

Our attorneys have always been on Boards of Directors and in other leadership positions of notable trade and business groups in the industry, state, national, and even international levels. We also remain deeply involved as policy advocates and in related lobbying efforts at the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) and the State legislature, including assistance with drafting legislation targeting the expansion of renewable energy opportunities in the State. We also participate actively in the PSC’s Integrated Resource Plan process, which has led to an expanded mandate for the procurement of solar energy projects by the Georgia Power Company.