Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.
270.65 sec. 001 - Energy Project Development & Finance (Spring 2021)
Instructor: Todd Glass (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: Scott Zimmermann (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 3
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: Remote Instruction
Meeting:
W 6:25 PM - 9:05 PM
Location: Internet/Online
From January 20, 2021
To April 30, 2021
Course End: April 30, 2021
Class Number: 32096
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 19
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 35
As of: 05/08 05:45 AM

This is an interdisciplinary course and we encourage interested graduate students from outside Berkeley Law to enroll.
The course will follow the progression of the development and financing of an energy project. In addition to covering utility-scale energy generation, the course will address issues unique to the development and financing of other modern types of energy infrastructure, including distributed energy resources, energy storage, demand response, energy efficiency, electric vehicle infrastructure, biofuels, fuel cells, and portfolios of small projects. In the first half of the course we focus on energy project development, including federal and state energy regulatory and jurisdictional issues, site development, interconnection, offtake arrangements, project construction, operation and maintenance and disposition. In the second half of the course we will cover project financing, including corporate structuring, joint venturing, equity, debt and tax equity financing. The course addresses the theoretical foundations for risk allocation and project finance structures typically used in the energy and infrastructure industries, while also covering practical negotiation and contract drafting strategies for addressing business, transactional and legal issues that arise on energy projects. We will also discuss cutting edge energy industry developments and policy issues in the context of project development and finance.
Students will complete the course with a fundamental understanding of how energy projects are developed and financed, and how the key regulatory and commercial forces affect the development of such projects, with a particular emphasis on the factors important to non-conventional energy projects. While the course focuses specifically on development and finance of energy projects, students will acquire skills broadly useful to transactional legal practices in other industries that incorporate aspects of corporate law, commercial transactions, technology transactions, regulatory proceedings and financing transactions.
The course is taught by Todd Glass and Scott Zimmermann, partners in the Energy and Infrastructure practice at Wilson Sonsini.
Real-time attendance at the first class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.
Prerequisites:
None required. LAW 270.6 (Energy Law & Policy) and LAW 270.7 (Renewable Energy Law and Policy) are recommended, although our course is designed to be complementary to these. LAW 251.1 (Corporate Finance) and LAW 250 (Business Associations) are also recommended but not required. As part of a broader curriculum on energy, we strongly recommend ER 200 (Energy & Society) and/or MBA 212 (Energy and Environmental Markets) during your time at Berkeley.
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home examination
Course Category: Environmental and Energy Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Business Law
If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.
Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Required Books are in blue
- Principles of Project Finance
E.R. Yescombe
Edition: 2d ed./2013
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780123910585
e-Book Available: Yes
e-Book procurement note: https://www.elsevier.com/books/principles-of-project-finance/yescombe/978-0-12-391058-5
Copyright Date: To Be Determined
Price: $89.95
Price Source: user provided - The Law and Business of International Project Finance
Scott L. Hoffman
Edition: 3d ed./2007
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521708784
e-Book Available: Yes
e-Book procurement note: https://www.amazon.com/Law-Business-International-Project-Finance/dp/0521708788
Copyright Date: To Be Determined
Price: 85.80
Price Source: user provided - From Edison to Enron: The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity
Richard Munson
Edition: 2005
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
ISBN: 9780275987404
e-Book Available: Unknown
Copyright Date: To Be Determined
Price: 21.95
Price Source: user provided - Renewable Energy Finance: Theory and Practice
Santosh Raikar and Seabron Adamson
Edition: 2019
Publisher: Elsevier
e-Book Available: Yes
e-Book procurement note: https://www.elsevier.com/books/renewable-energy-finance/raikar/978-0-12-816441-9
Copyright Date: To Be Determined
Price: 99.95
Price Source: user provided