Practice Areas: Climate Change

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy sources for the low-carbon economy of the future will fundamentally change the competitive landscape of business, opening up opportunities and risks across industries. The convergence of climate-related drivers – putting a price on carbon, regulations, investor preferences, and technology innovation – shape value creation and risk for business. These drivers are coalescing to drive the development and adoption of a wide range of clean-energy technologies. McGuireWoods’ targeted legal services facilitate value creation and mitigate the risks within each discrete driver.

Worldwide clean-energy investment is projected to surpass US$10 trillion by 2030 as a result of the rising trends. In emerging markets alone, experts estimate that US$100 billion in financial flows are needed by 2030 to meet demands for energy and climate stabilization. The move to a low-carbon economy can have both a profound positive and negative impact on cash flows. Putting a price on CO2 emissions, setting mandates, and providing subsidies all work to kick-start clean-energy technologies by overcoming existing economic advantages. An understanding and application of the emerging legal frameworks is critical to business.

An integrated approach – blending policy, transactional, regulatory, and liability expertise – has enabled our team to serve a wide-range of needs across the value-chain of clean-energy deployment. The complexity and impact of regulations necessitates inquiry: How will an increasingly complex permitting scheme for transmission lines and renewable energy generating facilities avoid needless costs? Are there opportunities to overcome hurdles to project finance through added carbon revenue? Insight into the legal frameworks shaping the answers will allow business to grasp opportunities and mitigate risks – a key competitive advantage in a carbon-constrained world.

Our services:

• clearly define carbon and climate change risks and opportunities throughout project development;
• negotiate transmission and interconnection agreements, including three party arrangements with regional transmission organizations and transmission owners;
• conduct due diligence to ensure compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements  throughout bid preparation, purchase and sale negotiations, and document review;
• review of financing documents and prepare legal opinions concerning regulatory compliance for financing;
• review, negotiation of and litigation about renewable energy certificates and credits (RERECs);
• represent clients in the development of new and modified renewable energy facilities, including representation before permitting, siting and related bodies;
• evaluate the impact of permitting and siting and related land use issues on transactional liability;
• incorporate evaluation of allowance and credit pricing in specific jurisdictions; and
• draft, structure, and negotiate state, national, and global Emission Reduction Purchasing Agreements