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Helen Aki

Senior Associate

San Francisco

With expertise that spans the full lifecycle of a project, Helen has a proven track record in driving complicated transactions from development to structuring to close.

She advises sponsors, investors and buyers in the renewable energy sector on all stages of a project, from drafting and negotiating offtake, procurement and construction contracts to coordinating debt, tax equity and preferred equity financing, as well as facilitating tax credit transfer structures, joint venture arrangements, and project acquisitions and sales.

Helen takes a collaborative approach to help clients build consensus and manage stakeholders across an increasingly complicated capital stack to close the deal. She understands both the legal and business challenges of the energy transition from a variety of perspectives, including through direct experience on secondment to the project finance group of a major U.S. renewable energy developer. 

As a law student, Helen worked as a summer legal intern in the Administrative Law Judge Division of the California Public Utilities Commission, as a senior business analyst with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and as a legal trainee at Positive Planet UK.

Before practicing law, she led programs with state and local governments and ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs to advance the adoption of clean technologies, including battery storage, virtual power plants, commercial and industrial lighting and advanced building control systems.

  • Project Finance and Tax Credit Transfer

    • Primergy Solar on the $1.9 billion debt and tax equity financing of its 690 MW solar and 380 MW storage Gemini project in Nevada
    • Multiple corporate buyers on the purchase of investment tax credits (ITCs) from utility-scale solar projects 
    • Clearway Energy Group and its affiliates on the safe harbor joint ventures and tax equity financings for numerous utility scale wind projects, including multiple repowerings
    • esVolta on the tax equity financing and transfer of tax credits for its 60 MWh Santa Paula energy storage project, one of the first tax equity financings for a standalone energy storage project 
    • Intersect Power on two tax equity financings with U.S. Bank and a Fortune 100 technology company that were part of a $3.1 billion financing for a 1.5 GW solar and 1 GWh storage portfolio in Texas and California 
    • Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure on various preferred equity investments in portfolios of distributed generation solar assets
    • A private investor in the re-financing of its cash equity interests in a portfolio of operating wind projects located in Texas and New Mexico
    • Clearway Energy Group and its affiliates in the construction, letter of credit and term loan financing for a 160.45 MW wind project located in Adams County, Washington
    • A renewable energy developer in the construction, term loan and tax equity financing of a portfolio of community solar and solar-plus-storage projects located in Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York
    • A solar developer in the construction, term loan and tax equity financing of a portfolio of seven utility-scale solar PV projects located in multiple U.S. states
    • Wellhead Energy and its affiliates in the construction and term loan financing of, and a letter of credit facility for, a 99.3 MW hybrid gas-fired/energy storage plant located in California

    Development

    • A storage developer in connection with the EPC agreement for a 70MW battery energy storage system located in California 
    • A renewable energy developer in connection with supply arrangements for utility-scale battery energy storage systems purchased from a Chinese manufacturer
    • A solar developer in connection with California PCC1 renewable energy credit sales agreements for several hundred MWs of projects
    • A storage developer in connection with a load-reduction agreement with an electric cooperative in the ISO New England market
    • Multiple developers in connection with solar and solar-plus-storage power purchase agreements with California community choice aggregators
    • A biofuels developer in connection with the operation and maintenance agreement for a wastewater treatment facility located in Nevada
    • The sponsor in connection with the procurement of inverters for its development pipeline of U.S. solar projects

    M&A and Joint Ventures

    • A renewable energy developer in connection with the sale of multiple development-stage solar and wind projects located in Michigan, South Carolina, and Ohio
    • CleanCapital in its investment in 29 MW of new-build solar in Howard County, Maryland
    • CleanCapital in its acquisition of a 65.3 MW portfolio of solar assets spanning 12 states
    • CleanCapital in the acquisition of a 34.5 MW portfolio of 4 operational solar assets located in New Jersey from investment manager GoldenSet Capital
    • A storage developer in connection with the joint development of a portfolio of stand-alone energy storage facilities in Massachusetts
    • A solar developer in connection with the acquisition of project assets for the development of two utility-scale solar projects in California
    • A developer in the formation of joint venture arrangements for a portfolio of development-stage wind projects in multiple U.S. states