Search sponsor
Search sponsor
Chadbourne & Parke lawyers closed more than US$20 billion in project finance deals in 2011, including the world's largest IPP project being built in Saudi Arabia, claims the firm. Highlights in 2011 included; working with developers and lenders on the first expansion in nuclear power in the US in 30 years and work for major developers and banks across the entire range of solar power technologies.
On the solar power side, Chadbourne acted for the developer group in acquiring and financing what the firm alleges, will be the world's largest PV power project, estimated to produce over 550MW of capacity when fully built. Chadbourne is also representing the lender group in the financing of a 250MW solar thermal project in California, which will apparently be among the largest such projects built anywhere in the world.
Chadbourne lawyers were also assigned by the sponsors of the Alamosa project for the financing of the first HCPV generation facility in the US, as well as acting for SolarCity, Sungevity and Sunpower on major residential solar projects throughout the country.
"I am very proud of our versatile team of more than 70 project finance lawyers situated in major money centres in the world – this past year, we represented clients in some of the largest and most complex deals across the renewable energy, conventional power, transmission, nuclear and oil and gas sectors," said Chadbourne project finance group co-head Rohit Chaudhry.
Chadbourne also acted for a Brazilian oil and gas company in relation to the project financing of a deepwater drilling rig and representing Grupo ACS on the securitization of Peruvian government guaranteed receivables used to finance the construction of the Taboada wastewater treatment plant in Lima, Peru.
Summarizing the deal landscape, Chadbourne partner Eli Katz, who works closely with many wind and solar clients, says: "The future in clean-tech is happening right now and Chadbourne's lawyers are playing a big part in making this all happen."
The company said the outlook for 2012 is mixed in the US due to the expiration of the Treasury cash grant program and a scaling back of European bank participation in the market. However, the US renewables sector is expected to remain busy as the market looks for new financing strategies to replace cash grants and the solar sector consolidates further. Chadbourne also expects to do more overseas work and sees a lot of potential in Turkey, where the firm opened an office in September 2011, as well as in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, where the firm also has offices and a long history.
