Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in connection with its acquisition of an existing royalty agreement on a portion of an operating wind project from Apex Clean Energy for $18 million. The project, which achieved commercial operations in September 2022, is an approximately 1 GW wind project located in Hansford County, Texas owned and operated by a top-tier renewables owner-operator.

Advising Encino Acquisition Partners (Encino Energy) on agreements for the sale and transportation of Encino's natural gas for compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requirements. Encino acquired the Ohio Utica Shale assets of Chesapeake Energy.

We advised a large independent oil and gas exploration and production company that will be an anchor shipper on a new regulated crude oil gathering pipeline in the Delaware Basin of Texas and New Mexico that will move crude oil from the basin to larger trunk pipelines and on to Cushing, Oklahoma and other points.  We assisted in the negotiation of a letter of intent, a transportation service agreement including benefits for anchor shippers that will require approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) in a petition for declaratory order, tariff provisions, storage agreements, and other contracts.  We also advised the client on timing and options for dealing with FERC’s current lack of a quorum, which limits the agency’s ability to issue the requisite declaratory order.  In addition, we reviewed and assisted in the negotiation of downstream transportation agreements.

Pierce Atwood represents project developer Plus Power in connection with the financing, land use, environmental mitigation and siting of a 150 MW / 300 MWh battery storage facility in Carver, Massachusetts. Cranberry Point Energy Storage is the largest battery storage project under construction in Massachusetts.

We represent the project developer before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA) for approval to construct and operate a 250 MW lithium-ion battery facility and a 345 kV transmission line.

We have been retained by an independent electricity transmission company to help them develop an energy storage business plan, evaluate battery vendors, prepare vendor contracts, and assist with applicable regulatory approvals and permits.

Representation of Athens Energy and its sister company, Maine Woods Pellet Company, in connection with all aspects of the financing of a $38 million biomass electricity generation facility, including $31 million of new markets tax credit financing ($31 million of State of Maine allocation and $7.5 million of federal allocation) and the syndication of renewable energy investment tax credits (ITC).

Pierce Atwood serves as lead transactional and environmental counsel for a leading U.S. operator and developer of stand-alone, utility-scale battery energy storage systems, in connection with a proposed 700±-MW battery energy storage system in Everett, Massachusetts. When completed, the proposed storage facility will be one of the largest in Massachusetts and will occupy a critical, urban location given its proximity to the Mystic substation. Pierce Atwood also leads aspects of the complex, state environmental permitting efforts, including, but not limited to, permitting under the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act, known as Chapter 91, and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.

Represented biomass facilities in regulatory challenge to allocation of REC credits in Rhode Island.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables, LLC, in connection with a $40 million secured term loan facility to Great Bay’s development partner, Nova Clean Energy, LLC. This follow-on transaction comes two years after Great Bay’s initial investment into Nova and its parent company Bluestar Energy Capital in May 2022. Since that time, Nova has built an extensive pipeline of 25 wind, solar and battery storage projects totaling approximately 6.5 GW.

We advised Burgess Biopower on all aspects of financing the redevelopment of a shuttered paper mill into a state-of-the-art 75 MW biomass power plant located in Berlin, New Hampshire, which will burn waste biomass and sell power to the grid. The financing involved several sources of funds, including $63.5 million of new markets tax credit financing with allocation from six CDEs. The project also involved a $90 million section 1603 cash grant in lieu of an investment tax credit or production tax credits. The balance of the project was financed by $200 million of rated bonds provided by a consortium of financial institutions. We also advised with respect to EPC agreement, off-take power purchase agreement with PSNH and all project related agreements.

Pierce Atwood acted as real estate and environmental permitting counsel for Calpine Corporation in its $530 million acquisition of the 809 MW Fore River Generating Station in North Weymouth, Massachusetts from Exelon Corporation in 2014. Pierce Atwood attorneys from the Real Estate, Energy, Environmental and State and Local Tax practice groups worked seamlessly to analyze and resolve the many complex land use, tax, and environmental issues. The initial bid preparation through purchase agreement negotiation was accomplished in 15 weeks. Our work included analysis and management of complex tidelands, former coal ash disposal, dual fuel delivery requirement, and management of active MassHighway bridge relocation through the center of project site.

Firm client Calpine Corporation has acquired Granite Ridge Energy Center, a natural gas-fired, combined cycle plant in Londonderry, NH from Granite Ridge Holdings for $500 million. The plant provides about 2,000 MW of clean, flexible, and reliable energy to the region.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in the provision of capital to support interconnection deposits for multiple renewable energy developers for projects in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) 2022 interconnection cycle.

Represented Cate Street Capital, Inc. in connection with acquisition, disposition, and financing of their portfolio of companies, including private placements, structured finance, tax advantaged finance, and traditional M&A activity. The Cate Street portfolio includes Red Desert (water reclamation facility); Sunlight Partners (solar technology development); Thermogen Industries (biocoal manufacturing); Purified Plastics (recycling and manufacturing facility); Burgess Biopower (75 MW renewable power generation facility) and Organic Nutrition Industries (renewable proteins).

Represented a community-based wind farm in obtaining state regulatory approval for a long-term electricity contract.

We negotiated with a utility to ensure that our client’s compressed air technology could operate on the system.

We negotiated the contract between our client Brown University and Ecosystem, the contractor, for a Thermal Efficiency Project that Brown is undertaking. The plan involves converting the university’s existing high-temperature hot water system to modern, highly efficient, lower-temperature hot water.

Represented investor in all aspects of converting a defunct paper mill into a biomass facility, including development, financing, power sale, fuel purchase, and renewable energy credits.

Represented Cumberland Gulf and others in rulemaking proceedings before the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

We are assisting Via Science to provide reliability services for grid operators by collecting and analyzing data.

Advised a Kentucky developer of solar PV projects in connection with new market tax credit opportunities, off take agreements, financing and tax credits.

We represent and advise landfill owners in the development of gas-to-energy sites where methane is extracted from the landfill and used to generate electricity.

We are assisting Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy), a Danish energy company and one of the world's leading developers of off-shore wind generation facilities, in connection with the development of off-shore wind generation and related facilities southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.

Pierce Atwood represented a developer in the negotiation of an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract for a solar project.  Assisted with the drafting of negotiated performance liquidated damages and compensation limitations if the performance criteria is not achieved.

We represent the project developer of a 150 MW battery energy storage facility before FERC and NYISO.

We advocated for RES-Americas before FERC and state initiatives to help ensure the use of our client’s battery systems on the grid.

Pierce Atwood successfully represented the U.S. Energy Storage Association in a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rulemaking. In its Order 841, FERC found that existing RTO/ISO market rules are unjust and unreasonable in light of barriers that they present to the participation of electric storage resources.

We successfully obtained from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) two key waivers of its capacity release rules for a large independent oil and gas producer client.  FERC requires that shippers on natural gas pipelines that seek to transfer pipeline capacity in connection with a large transaction or exiting the natural gas supply business seek a waiver of the capacity release rules and policies to ensure that there are no inadvertent violations. 

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in connection with a follow-on transaction with its development partner, U.S. renewable energy developer Hexagon Energy, LLC. Great Bay will provide up to $30 million to support upcoming interconnection security requirements to advance Hexagon’s 3.4 GW PJM portfolio in the interconnection process.

Represented Florida developer of nation’s largest forest biomass-powered generating plant in contracting, siting and appellate matters.

Represented Florida Power and Light on real estate title, easements, entitlements, and documentation, as well as the transfer of federal, state, and local environmental and land use approvals, in connection with the acquisition of the Seabrook, New Hampshire Nuclear Power facility.

Assisting Bright Community Capital, a subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises, Inc., with all aspects of fund formation and capital raise efforts for a tax equity fund and a sponsor equity fund, which will be used to acquire mid-size solar PV projects with a focus on those in low-income areas or benefitting low-income people.

Represented Great Bay Renewables in connection with the formation of a joint venture between certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc., and Altius Renewable Royalties Corp. to accelerate the growth of Great Bay’s innovative renewable energy royalty business.

Represented Sappi North America, Inc. in the negotiation and permitting of the surrender of the FERC license for the Saccarappa Hydro Project in Westbrook, Maine, in 2013-2019.

Helped devise and negotiate innovative project development loan and equity option agreements between a private equity fund and a renewable project developer to secure, fund and ultimately develop renewable projects.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in the provision of a $50 million interconnection financing facility for Geenex, a leading developer of utility-scale energy projects, which will support readiness deposits for Geenex’s PJM TC2 projects. This financing facility strengthens Geenex’s ability to advance a robust pipeline of projects through PJM’s interconnection queue.

Represented Pine Tree Landfill in obtaining necessary permits for construction and operation of 5 MW landfill gas-to-energy facility.

Represented market participants, including Bath Iron Works, Calpine, and Cate Street in ISO-NE markets, providing them representation and advice regarding compliance with market rules.

Provide corporate and regulatory counsel to a large, Boston-based banking institution in connection with the monetization of federal and state income tax credits associated with a wide variety of energy projects.

Represented the monetization of wood fueled electric power generating facilities in Maine and New York developed by Boralex Industries, Inc.

Since 2017, Pierce Atwood has represented Avangrid Networks, Inc. and its affiliates CMP and NECEC Transmission LLC on all aspects of the development of the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC), a $1 billion, 147-mile high-voltage direct current transmission line that will interconnect the New England transmission system with the Hydro-Quebec (HQ) transmission system at the Canadian border in western Maine. The NECEC will deliver 1,200 MW of hydropower generated by Hydro-Quebec to the New England grid around the clock for at least 40 years. As found by the Maine PUC, this project promises to reduce the cost of electricity in Maine and New England by tens of millions of dollars each year, increase the reliability of the New England electric grid, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.0-3.6 million metric tons annually (the equivalent of removing 700,000 cars from the road).

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in its investment in Longroad Energy’s Titan Solar project, a 70 MWac utility-scale solar project located in Imperial County, California. The investment was used to finance the buyout of a tax equity investor’s residual post-flip interest.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in connection with its establishment of a $10.1 million interconnection deposit loan facility to support its development partner, Hexagon Energy. 

Assisting Cate Street’s subsidiary Newco Energy in development and $275 million new market tax credit and Section 1603 financing of its biomass plant in Berlin, New Hampshire.

Represented NTE Energy, a power developer and energy services provider, in strategizing, structuring, negotiating, and documenting equity investments for three natural gas-fired power plants valued at more than $1.1 billion.

Represent NTE Energy in connection to its hybrid renewable biomass power generation projects. We have assisted with all aspects of development, financing and off-take agreement negotiations for projects in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Indiana and Washington.

We have represented a nuclear power plant in New Hampshire on multiple property tax valuation matters, as well as on obtaining pollution control exemptions.

We serve as general counsel to Ocean Renewable Power Company, LLC, a developer of tidal energy technology and projects. Our work includes successful applications for FERC and state environmental authorizations for product trials in Western Passage off the Maine coast, a program that is now implemented in Alaska and Canada.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in the formation of a strategic partnership with Granite Source Power, a developer of battery energy storage and electricity generation projects.

We represented Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) in expanding access to compressed natural gas throughout the State of Maine and elsewhere in New England. Pierce Atwood assisted XNG in obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals and environmental permits for compressed natural gas production facilities in Baileyville and Eliot, Maine. These facilities receive natural gas from major pipelines, condition and compress it, and then dispense it into tank trailers made of composite materials. The trailers are then trucked to customer locations throughout Maine and elsewhere, where the CNG is used primarily as boiler fuel. These were the first facilities of their kind in New England, and allow consumers who are not presently served by a gas utility to take advantage of this abundant, clean burning, economic and domestically produced energy resource. Our attorneys successfully led XNG through the process of obtaining approvals from the Public Utilities Commission. We drafted and obtained a town zoning ordinance amendment and other local approvals, and successfully navigated permit or exemption issues before the Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Fuel Board, and the State Fire Marshal. We were also successful in determining that the facility was not subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction.

Representing New Leaf Energy, Inc. (formerly Borrego Solar Systems, Inc.) in the preparation of petition to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities for approval of battery storage systems, including a facility located in western Massachusetts.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables, LLC, in connection with a $6.1 million PJM interconnection deposit facility to support Red Stone Renewables, a privately-owned developer of utility scale renewables projects.

Representing manufacturing facilities and electric and gas utilities in property tax abatement proceedings.

Lead real estate and permitting counsel to NYSE-listed energy company on purchase of all operating permits and development rights for 300 MW class to-be-constructed combined cycle dual fuel project, requiring delivery of new gas laterals and redeployment of excess water reservoir capacities for cooling.

Retained to advise Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) in connection with general regulatory issues. 

Representation of a renewable energy developer in the factoring of receivables from ISO-NE.

Represent developer, owner and operator of renewable gas facilities in all aspects of negotiating and documenting the siting, supply, off-take and financing of their renewable energy projects, which produce biogas, pipeline-grade methane and carbon sequestration credits from livestock and food industry waste streams by utilizing an advanced anaerobic digestion technology.

Pierce Atwood represented Great Bay Renewables in connection with its $45 million royalty financing of U.S. renewable energy developer Hexagon Energy, LLC. With this transaction, Great Bay gains future royalties related to Hexagon’s portfolio of solar, solar plus energy storage and standalone energy storage development projects. Hexagon’s portfolio currently consists of 43 development projects totaling 5.3 GWac located across 12 states and four regional transmission organizations.

Pierce Atwood advised Great Bay Renewables, LLC, with respect to its $30 million royalty investment in renewable energy developer Nokomis Energy’s portfolio of 77 solar development projects located across seven states. The transaction also includes any future development projects added to Nokomis’s portfolio. The $30 million royalty investment will be made in tranches over approximately the next two to three years as Nokomis achieves certain project advancement milestones.