Andrew L. Kinde

/My focus

I represent clients involved in the acquisition, development, operation, and financing of renewable energy projects. My practice focuses on the investment tax credits generated by such projects. My work on these transactions includes drafting, reviewing, and negotiating various tax equity and loan documents, and conducting the necessary due diligence to ensure transactions run smoothly and efficiently, as well as overall project management.

Before joining Nixon Peabody, I served as a law clerk in the Massachusetts Appeals Court for Associate Justice Peter Sacks. Before attending law school, I worked at multiple large developers in the solar industry, where I provided in-home consultation and project management services for residential and community solar customers.

/Representative experience

• Large utility-scale solar projects: Represented the tax equity investor on five transactions. Each transaction was for the development of a utility-scale solar project, with all five projects having a generating capacity of at least 100 MWac. The projects, in three states (one in Texas, one in Louisiana, and three in Arkansas), have a combined total generating capacity of 830 MWac and a combined fair market value of approximately $1.625 billion. Four of the five projects qualified as energy community projects under the Energy Investment Tax Credit. This tax credit helps revitalize communities that have historically hosted oil, coal, and gas facilities while facilitating a more rapid clean energy transition.
• 25 community solar projects in five states: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with financing for a 111 MWac community solar portfolio of 25 solar projects in New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
• Large utility-scale battery energy storage system in Arizona: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of tax credits generated by a 185 MWac battery energy storage system in Arizona.
• Wind facility in Maine: Represented the tax equity investor, a regulated bank, in connection with a 58 MWac wind facility in Maine.
• Two large utility-scale battery energy storage systems in Texas: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of the tax credits generated by two battery energy storage systems, each 160 MWac, in Texas.
• Solar project in Illinois: Represented the developer in connection with the tax equity and loan financing for a 60 MWdc solar project in Illinois.
• Solar project in Missouri: Represented the developer in connection with the tax equity and loan financing for a 25 MWac solar project in Missouri.
• Five solar projects in Virginia: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a portfolio of five solar projects in Virginia, with a combined total generating capacity of 312 MWdc.
• Large utility-scale solar project in Pennsylvania: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of the tax credits generated by a 150 MWac solar project in Pennsylvania.
• 13 community solar projects across five states: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a 48 MWac community solar portfolio consisting of 13 solar projects in New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Minnesota.
• Combined utility-scale solar project and battery energy storage system in California: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of the tax credits generated by a combined 250 MWac solar project and 125 MWac battery energy storage system in California.
• Large utility-scale solar project in Mississippi: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of the tax credits generated by a 99 MWac solar project in Mississippi.
• Three solar projects in New York: Represented the developer in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a 15 MWac portfolio consisting of three solar projects in New York State.
• Large utility-scale solar project in Illinois: Represented the tax credit purchaser in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a portion of the tax credits generated by a 592 MWac solar project in Illinois.
• Solar project in Nebraska: Represented the tax equity investor, a regulated bank, in connection with an 81 MWac solar project in Nebraska, with a fair market value of approximately $163 million.
• 14 community solar projects in three states: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a 68 MWac community solar portfolio of 14 solar projects in New York, Maine, and Colorado.
• Four solar projects in New York: Represented the developer in connection with the tax credit sale and transfer for a 20 MWac portfolio consisting of four solar projects in New York.
• Large solar project in Arizona: Represented the tax equity investor, a regulated bank, in connection with a 100 MWac solar project in Arizona, with a fair market value of approximately $168 million.
• Large solar project in Illinois: Represented a bank client in connection with the tax equity financing of a 92 MWdc solar project in Illinois.
• Two solar projects in Massachusetts: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a 9.5 MWac combined solar and energy storage system portfolio of two projects in Massachusetts.
• Distributed wind facility in California: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing of a 5.6 MWac distributed wind turbine-generating facility in California.
• Large solar project in Arizona: Represented the tax equity investor, a regulated bank, in connection with a 150 MWac solar project in Arizona, with a fair market value of approximately $340 million.
• 12 solar projects in North Carolina: represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a 60 MWac solar portfolio of 12 solar projects in North Carolina.
• Six solar projects in North and South Carolina: Represented the tax equity investor in connection with the financing for a 29 MWac solar portfolio of six solar projects in North Carolina and South Carolina.

/Looking ahead

Despite recent political headwinds, I see continuing momentum for a full-scale transition away from fossil fuels, both domestically and at a global level, with racial, social, and energy justice emphasized as foundational aspects of such a transition. Electrification of all sectors of the economy will be critical to achieving this transition, which will entail energy storage technologies playing a central and increasingly bigger role at both commercial and local community levels.

/Insights

• “The Pathway to a Green New Deal: Synthesizing Transdisciplinary Literatures and Activist Frameworks to Achieve a Just Energy Transition,” 44 ENVIRONS ENVTL. LAW & POLICY J. 1 (2020), co-written with Shalanda H. Baker, Secretarial Advisor on Equity and Deputy Director for Energy Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy
• “Let’s Make a Green New Deal: An Analysis of State Carbon Taxes as a Foundational Piece of Climate Legislation in the United States,” 11 NE. U. L. REV. 474 (2019)
• “Energy Storage: To Be, or Not to Be… What, Exactly? That is the Real Question,” Northeastern University Law Review — Extra Legal, October 30, 2018