Current Siting Issues Under NEPA and Other Significant Federal Legislation

May 12, 2010 - Stoel Rives

Join Stoel Rives renewable energy attorneys Erin Anderson, Barbara Brenner, and Michael O'Connell for this EUCI-sponsored webinar on Wednesday, May 19. They will be speaking on CURRENT SITING ISSUES UNDER NEPA AND OTHER SIGNIFICANT FEDERAL LEGISLATION. This webinar will appeal to anyone involved in and with renewable energy.

Topics will include:

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) basic requirements
• When NEPA applies
• Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements
• ESA - strategies for compliance
• National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) applicability to renewable energy projects
• NHPA identification of cultural resources
• NHPA - avoiding common pitfalls
• Unique siting issues related to developing facilities on federal lands
• NEPA revisited

Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements: Allocation of Risk
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy set forth the complex relationship between the seller (generally the developer of the renewable energy source) and the buyer (often a utility), including key provisions addressing allocation of future risks that are inherent in long-term renewable energy contracts. With three out of five of the States having Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in place and the prospect of a Federal RPS, many utilities are seeking to become first-time purchasers of the output from renewable projects. Utilities with a history of purchasing renewable energy are also seeking more renewable resources. Through various PPA terms, utilities are increasingly seeking to place the risk of RPS non-compliance and other change in law risks on the renewable project developer. These developments can result in PPA terms that are very problematic for project financing. This webinar will identify key PPA terms and explore how parties can negotiate, draft and equitably allocate the uncertainties surrounding RPS compliance and other change in law risks.

Renewable Energy Tax Benefits: Optimizing Value in a Changed Environment
Tax credits, government grants and related tax benefits represent the driving force behind renewable project financing. Understanding how these benefits work, and how to maximize their values, is a crucial element of effectively financing any renewable project. The implementation of the Treasury Department grant program and recent changes to the tax laws have revolutionized renewable project finance over the past several years, and impending and proposed changes to the tax laws no doubt will revolutionize renewable project finance in the next several years. This webinar will provide a background of the tax and other benefits available, focusing particularly on the Treasury Department grant program, and the transaction structures that are and will be used to take advantage of those benefits. We will also clarify recent and proposed changes to the programs and how those changes will impact project financing in the coming months and years. Our presentation will focus principally on recent changes to the Treasury Department guidance regarding the sunset provisions of the grant program structure and what it means to “begin construction” for purposes of qualifying for the grant.

Energy Storage: Smoothing Out Intermittent Renewable Resources
No good deed goes unpunished: a growing number of utilities now face the challenge of “integrating” intermittent wind and solar resources into their systems. Managing the grid to accommodate intermittent resources can be expensive, as the BPA’s recent 2009 rate case demonstrated. If energy storage could be made available at an economic price to capture intermittent generation that couldn’t be used immediately by load, it would provide an important tool to enable renewable resources to penetrate more fully into the grid.

The potential of energy storage has been attracting attention. In November 2008, Xcel Energy set up a pilot project that uses a 7.2 MW sodium-sulphur battery to store and manage wind energy. “Bulk storage” technologies like pumped storage hydro are well understood and have been used extensively since the 1970s. In 2009, the Stimulus Bill earmarked significant stimulus dollars for the development of advanced storage technologies. More recently, the California Assembly began considering AB 2514, which proposes to require utilities to meet energy storage goals, just as they are now required to meet RPS requirements.

This webinar will explore the circumstances under which energy storage will come to play a larger role in our energy system. We'll discuss the intellectual property issues that arise in connection with the invention and use of advanced storage technologies; whether storage should be treated as a generation or a transmission resource; whether storage will be added to the distribution system; the bulk transmission system or both; what an energy storage “tolling agreement” looks like; and steps that renewable energy developers can take to preserve their ability to incorporate storage into their renewable energy projects.