Eli M. Katz

Partner

Practice Description

Eli Katz is a transactional lawyer who focuses on providing tax, legal and commercial advice to a broad range of clients in the energy and financial sectors. Many of Mr. Katz's clients are active in the renewable energy and clean-tech industries where they operate across many sectors such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, transmission, demand side management and energy saving retrofits. Mr. Katz regularly advises his clients on energy tax credits, government incentive programs, project development and finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and deployment structures and all forms of leasing transactions both in the United States and abroad. Over the past few years, Mr. Katz has led pioneering transactions in the renewable energy sector including the first leveraged lease of a wind farm, the first levered tax equity transaction to use the Section 1603 cash grant and one of the first tax equity transactions with a prepaid power contract. Some of his recent client representations include Terra-Gen Power, Metlife, the AES Corporation, First Wind, GE Capital, US Bancorp, Harbinger Capital and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Katz joined Chadbourne from GE Energy Financial Services where he was Vice President and Tax Counsel. He regularly publishes articles in tax and energy periodicals and speaks frequently at industry seminars on topics relating to energy tax incentives and project development and financing strategies.

Representative Matters

• Representation of Siemens Financial Services, Inc., Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, and Union Bank, N.A. in connection with the financing of Pattern Energy’s 151.8 MW Spring Valley wind project, located near Ely, Nevada, the first major wind project in Nevada.
• Representation of Siemens Financial Services, Inc. in connection with the financing of Pattern Energy’s 101.3 MW Santa Isabel wind project located in the municipality of Santa Isabel on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, the first major wind project in Puerto Rico.
• Represented sponsor in the purchase and financing of an approximately $3 billion, 550MW solar photovoltaic project being constructed in California, including the application for a U.S. Department of Energy loan guaranty in support of the debt financing for the project.
• Represented MetLife Capital Credit in a term loan and tax equity financing deal of a 24MW solar photovoltaic power project in Guayama, Puerto Rico.
• Represented the developer and lessee in the $1.6 billion financing for Alta Phases II-V (which included a Rule 144A bond offering, a bank cash grant bridge facility and a forward commitment for a sale-leaseback), making this the first large portfolio of wind projects utilizing a leveraged lease structure in the United States.
• Represented the developer and lessee on a $560 million sale-leaseback of a 150 MW wind farm in Kern County, California.
• Represented MetLife on its joint venture with BP Solar for the Long Island Solar Farm, a 32 MW solar energy project under construction at the U.S. Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY.
• Represented the developer group in the approximately $2 billion financing for the world's largest wind farm totaling 845 megawatts of capacity at the Caithness Shepherds Flat project in eastern Oregon.
• Represented AES in a $120 million tax equity financing from Citibank of the Armenia Mountain Wind projects in Tioga and Bradford County.
• Represented GE Energy Financial Services in connection with the company's preferred equity investment in an Oklahoma wind farm.
• Represented Transmission Developers Inc. (TDI), sponsor of the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), in the development of a $3.8 billion power transmission line to bring renewable power to New York and New England from the U.S.-Canada border. Blackstone Group is TDI’s lead financial partner.
• Represented the Mt. Poso Cogeneration Company in its convertible tax equity investment with DTE Energy Services to fund the conversion of a 49.5 MW coal-fired power plant to burn biomass located near Bakersfield, California. When completed, this will be the largest biomass project in California.

Honors

Publications

Speeches and Events