Sean M. Moran
As technology and power generation have continued to evolve and grow exponentially, we have evolved as well by innovating financial and legal structuring and finding solutions that are embraced by all stakeholders in the zero and carbon neutral power space. Sean focuses on asset finance, with an emphasis on financing, acquiring, and disposing of renewable energy, zero carbon, and infrastructure assets. Instrumental in creating the structure that has become the standard for renewable energy deals in the United States, Sean has handled many of the country’s largest and most complex renewable energy financing transactions, including numerous first-of-its-kind deals.
In the course of his practice, Sean represents Fortune 50 companies, investors, sponsors, and developers. His clients include some of the largest investors in the renewable energy market, collectively investing billions of dollars in renewable energy generation. His projects include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and waste-to-energy facilities that generate electric power in all but a couple of states.
Recently, he has represented both investors and sponsors in the development of solar and storage facilities, off-shore wind power facilities, and fossil fuel power facilities that sequester carbon.
Sean is ranked by Chambers USA as a Band 1 lawyer nationally in Projects: Renewables and Alternative Energy.
Experience Highlights
Blackstone Credit and ClearGen, a Blackstone Credit portfolio company, in the formation of a strategic partnership between ClearGen and GreenStruxure, a Schneider Electric and Huck Capital joint venture, to develop, own and operate up to $500 million of renewable energy microgrid systems for C&I customers
8 Rivers Capital in its joint venture with ADM to develop the 280 MW Broadwing Clean Energy Complex in Illinois, one of the world’s first zero emissions Allam-Fetvedt cycle power plants, including CO2 storage capabilities
8 Rivers Capital in its joint venture with The Southern Ute Indian Tribe Growth Fund to develop the 280 MW Coyote Clean Power Project in Colorado, one of the world’s first zero-emissions NET Power natural gas-fired power plants, including CO2 capture and storage capabilities
Buckeye Partners and Nala Renewables in their acquisition of a majority interest in Swift Current Energy, a leading North American clean energy development and investment platform with a pipeline of over 6 GW of solar, wind and energy storage projects
Numerous tax equity investors in their initial investments in utility scale wind, solar, and storage projects including—with respect to solar and storage—commercial, industrial, and residential assets, utilizing partnership flip transactions, sale leaseback, and inverted lease structures
Goldman Sachs Renewable Power in connection with the acquisition from Recurrent Energy and the development, debt and term financing of a 300MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plus 140.25MW/561MWh storage project in California. The project will sell power pursuant to 5 separate power purchase agreements, 4 of which include energy storage
A major financial institution as tax equity investor in the financing of a 460MW combined photovoltaic (PV) solar and battery storage facility in ERCOT, a portion of the output of which is to be sold under a hedge with the balance of the energy and the storage component being utilized on a merchant basis
Goldman Sachs Renewable Power in the acquisition, joint development, and tax equity financing of a several hundred megawatts of shovel-ready C&L solar and solar-plus-storage projects across the United States
Numerous tax equity investors in tax equity financing of various wind repowering projects throughout the United States
Cypress Creek in a mezzanine debt facility, a preferred equity issuance, and recapitalization intended to optimize its capital structure as part of its long-term growth strategy
Tax equity investors and sponsors in the financing of numerous solar and wind projects selling power to Community Choice Aggregators
Multiple tax equity investors in the sale and leveraged lease-back of wind, solar and geothermal projects
A sponsor in the cash equity financing of several portfolios of residential and commercial solar projects with different financing parties
A leading solar developer in connection with a sale of operating assets and subsequent sale of the company
Credentials
- Fordham University School of Law, J.D., 1988 (Fordham Law Review, Member)
- New York University School of Law, LL.M., Tax, 1994
- Fordham University, B.S., 1981
- Judicial clerk to The Honorable Joseph M. McLaughlin, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Chambers Global, Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy, 2015–2019
- Chambers USA, Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy (Nationwide), 2014–2021
- The National Law Journal, “Energy & Environmental Trailblazer,” 2016
- Daily Journal, “Top 100 Lawyers in California,” 2015
- California
- New York
- Not admitted in Texas
- InsightJuly 2, 2021
V&E Renewable Energy Update
- InsightJune 30, 2021
V&E Renewable Energy Update
- Deals & CasesJune 24, 2021
- Deals & CasesMay 25, 2021
- Event RecapMay 24, 2021 - May 27, 2021
- Event RecapMay 12, 2021
- Deals & CasesApril 16, 2021
- Deals & CasesApril 8, 2021
- InsightApril 5, 2021
- InsightApril 2, 2021
V&E American Jobs Plan Update
- InsightFebruary 12, 2021
- Press ReleaseFebruary 3, 2021
- “IRS Extends Safe Harbor for Renewable Energy Projects,” client alert, May 28, 2020 (co-author)
- “Principal Tax Issues in Debt Restructurings,” client alert, April 30, 2020 (co-author)
- “2018 in Retrospect: The Renewable Energy Industry in a Post-TCJA World,” Tax Notes, February 11, 2019 (co-author)
- “Back to the Beginning: Energy Property Revisited,” Tax Notes, December 19, 2016 (co-author)
- “The Unwind: ‘I Don’t Want It’,” Tax Notes, September 12, 2016 (co-author)
- “Renewable Power Facilities: Placed-in-Service Issues,” Tax Notes, Vol. 151, No. 8, May 23, 2016 (co-author)
- “Renewable Structures: Choices and Challenges,” April 2015 (co-author)
- “Pros & Cons of Recent Renewable Energy Bill,” Law360, May 2013 (co-author)