Energy and Natural Resources

Accelerating the energy transition will require virtually every business, particularly those in the energy and natural resources industry, to innovate and adapt to build a better future. We support you in tackling these challenges, seizing opportunities in an uncertain environment.

The energy and natural resources industry faces fresh challenges every day. A highly volatile and uncertain market is fraught with increasing regulation, price shifts, supply chain issues and geopolitical disruptions. You’re looking for new technologies, innovative ways of doing business, efficiencies and market breakthroughs – such as hydrogen or battery storage solutions – to reshape your business and shift to a more sustainable future. 

Our Energy team understands this fundamental change and how it affects your business, whether you are in the power, renewables, mining, commodities trading, oil and gas, waste, water or hydrogen markets. We advise the regulated, investors, developers and other key industry stakeholders, including governments.

Our team walks alongside you during your project lifecycle, including inception, development, completion, operation and sale. We cover the legal, geographical, commercial and geopolitical aspects of your business across its entire value chain.  

We handle the full spectrum of your legal needs in the industry, from finance and project development to regulatory, corporate transactional, restructuring and dispute resolution. Our lawyers approach every issue with sustainability and ESG in mind.  

With 400+ lawyers in over 40 countries, we can help you wherever you do business. We become a part of your team and your decision-making process, sharing insights about what shareholders need and what’s trending.  

Renewables:
Driving the transition to renewable power

We are the leading global law firm in renewable energy, advising on more deals than any other (Inspiratia, 2021 and YTD 2022).

Renewable power generation through wind, solar, hydro and other methods is one of the most visible aspects of the energy transition. The race is under way to plan, procure, develop, implement and sell renewable energy. This activity is central to discussions around climate change and, increasingly, calls for greater energy security driven by geopolitical instability.

We bring the cross-border reach and local presence that our clients need. We combine this with industry insights gained from advising on more renewable deals and projects than any other global law firm.

We represent developers, sponsors, equity investors, offtakers, lenders, multilateral institutions and government bodies and agencies.

Our experience covers development, construction, financing, M&A, sales, and investing in a diverse range of renewables and related projects. These include renewable power generation projects, energy storage facilities, utility-scale, distributed and residential solar, onshore, offshore and floating wind, biomass, and other innovations and technology-based matters. We also advise in tax, environmental, real estate, IP, employment, dispute resolution and arbitration matters.

Our offices work together seamlessly on cross-border projects, and to the extent our experience is limited in a specific jurisdiction, our colleagues with specialist knowledge are called upon to assist in domestic projects to ensure that our clients get access to the relevant expertise at all times.

We also have an open source approach, sharing best practice and explaining complex concepts through thought leadership and free global and regional guides. These platforms and resources mean you can understand challenges and opportunities in several jurisdictions without needing to search in multiple locations.

Corporate Power Purchase Agreements:
Leading advice on corporate PPAs

Corporate power purchase agreements can reduce your carbon footprint, support the creation of renewable energy, and provide cost savings and energy security. With our breadth of experience, we can help you with any type of PPA, anywhere in the world. In fact, no other law firm closes as many corporate PPAs as we do. 

As businesses become more aware of the need to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions, corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) are gaining in popularity. With today’s substantial wind and solar development and an active M&A market, even low-energy users are benefitting from corporate PPAs to reduce their carbon footprints and obtain cost savings in volatile markets. 

We’re here to help you navigate every step. Our global team is consistently recognized by Inspiratia for doing more corporate PPA deals than any other law firm. We provide guidance on all models of corporate PPAs, whether virtual, physical, hybrid or private wire – within one jurisdiction, or across borders.

We advise corporate off-takers (in a wide range of industries), generators, funders and licensed suppliers across more than 30 countries, so we fully understand the drivers and issues from all perspectives.

Our team also knows what it’s like to walk in your shoes. When we advise you on a corporate PPA, we bring to the table our own experience as the first law firm in the world to have signed a corporate PPA as an off-taker. Our entry into a corporate PPA with NextEnergy is a major milestone in our firm’s journey to decarbonize and supports our commitment to halving our greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms by 2030.

We of course help you consider PPA objectives against material risks and interactions with other key project agreements, including availability, outage, connections, curtailment and balancing. But we also help you with the transfer and use of all relevant project and environmental attributes (for example, EU GoOs, international IRECs), the sleeving of electricity under supply agreements, and the optimization of sleeved renewable electricity with other price hedging arrangements.  

Above all, we’re innovators. Our team created the “hybrid” virtual power purchase agreement (vPPA), and drafted for the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) the standard financially settled and physically settled PPAs, the standard GoO and REGO Certificates Master Agreement and the standard Hydrogen GoO Master Agreement. 

We’ll provide comprehensive advice to guide you through the full process of implementing a PPA and ensure you achieve a successful outcome.