Renewable Energy

HWLE is a market leader in renewable energy and has advised on more than 75 projects across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and globally. Our team supports clients through every stage of a project, including regulatory and structuring, preliminary land agreements, planning, securing land tenure & access rights, corporate & M&A, equity & funding arrangements, project development, grid connection, finance, construction, electricity trading & offtake, and operations & maintenance.

Our clients include developers, owners, financiers, operators, investors, grid operators, retailers and regulators. We have been the lawyers for proponents of Australia’s largest and most complex renewable energy projects and also have negotiated their sale. We have also acted for investors in project acquisitions in wind, solar, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and offshore wind projects.

We understand the commercial and regulatory complexities that shape the sector with experience spanning wind, solar, hydrogen and ammonia, pumped hydro, and BESS. As industry lawyers we understand the issues industry participants face and can talk sensibly about them. This enables us to deliver value for clients beyond the provision of legal services, regardless of any project phase.

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Renewable Energy

Our experience

  • Yanco Delta Wind Farm Advising on land tenure, planning and permitting, grid connection, REZ issues and sale documentation for Virya Energy’s $300 million sale of the Yanco Delta Wind Farm project (near Jerilderie in NSW) to Origin Energy. The sale of the 1.5 GW project represents the largest wind farm transaction in Australia.
  • Wooreen BESS Project Advising Banpu Energy Australia on its acquisition of a 50% interest in the 350MW BESS project near Wooreen in Victoria.
  • Golden Plains Wind Farm Advising project proponent WestWind Energy on land tenure, neighbour, land use agreements and issues; development contracts, construction, corporate and commercial matters; grid connection agreements and regulatory matters and equity matters for the 1.3GW Golden Plains Wind Farm near Rokewood in Victoria.
  • Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project Advising the project proponents for the development and sale of the 900MW Oven Mountain pumped hydro energy storage project near Kempsey NSW, including land and consultancy agreements for environmental, geotechnical, hydrology and grid connection, design and associated civil and connection works; shareholder, investor and sale documentation.
  • Limondale Solar Farm Advising project proponent Overland Sun Farming on land tenure, neighbour, land use agreements and issues; development contracts ; grid connection agreements & regulatory and equity matters and sale of the 314MWac Limondale Solar Farm near Balranald in NSW.
  • Offshore Wind Members of our team have had leading roles on Australia’s leading offshore wind projects including Copenhagen Infrastructure Partner’s Star of the South Wind Farm (Australian’s most advanced offshore wind project) and Alinta and JERA Nex bp’s Spinifex Offshore Wind Farm.
  • Project Development The intellectual capital in advising clients in over 70 renewable energy projects enables our team to deliver best financeable outcomes for projects, This includes permitting, land tenure, core design and development arrangements and corporate structure for the project.
  • Grid Connection & Regulatory We have depth of experience in advising on grid connections processes and agreements, and experience in dealing with NSPs and regulatory players. Our FIRB team supports the investment of our foreign clients.
  • Offtake & power purchase Lawyers in our team have advised our renewable clients on offtake arrangements, including contracts for difference and power purchase for more than 20 years.
  • Construction & Operations We have drawn and negotiated EPC, S&I, split contracting and O&M arrangements for multiple wind, solar and BESS projects, including EPCs for wind and solar projects in most states of Australia and New Zealand.
  • Acquisition, Sale & Investments Our team has negotiated the investments, sales and acquisitions in over 40 renewable energy projects.