Ata Dinlenc is of counsel in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of Gibson Dunn’s Power and Renewables Group. He is an experienced counselor to clients across a variety of transactional and commercial matters, with a focus on capital-intensive projects.
Ata advises clients on acquisitions & divestitures, joint-ventures, tiered equity investments, energy tax credit monetization, commodity price hedging and offtake contracts, and other commercial contracts involving energy infrastructure projects and other closely-held companies. He also advises borrowers and lenders, including both commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions such as private equity firms and other specialty lenders, in a range of financings, including project financings and mezzanine loans. Ata has been recommended by Legal 500 (2013) for his experience in the project finance area.
He applies his decades of experience and industry knowledge to a range of M&A, financing and commercial issues facing clients to facilitate innovative structuring on complex transactions.
His recent experience includes representing AIP, a Danish investment fund, in its investment in the Little Bear 160 MWac solar project in California and in the Prospero 300 MWac solar project in Texas and representing a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group in the sale of an interest in a 600 MW gas-fired power project.
Ata has been a panel moderator at numerous energy-sector conferences and is the author of “Financing Renewable Energy Projects: An Inflection Point?,” Infrastructure Journal, January 6, 2009.
He received his Juris Doctor in 1997 from Fordham University School of Law, where he was a Notes & Articles Editor on the Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. Ata earned his Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (with a concentration in Economics) from Johns Hopkins University in 1993.
Representative recent transactions:
- Represented Talen Energy in its negotiation and documentation of power purchase agreements for up to 650 MW of capacity from its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania with adjacent behind-the-meter data centers.
- Representing Clearway Energy in the acquisition of a 136 MW operating wind power project and related new offtake agreement.
- Advising Berkshire Hathaway Energy in the development of the Ravenswood solar project in West Virginia and related power offtake arrangements with an adjacent titanium production facility.
- Advising Berkshire Hathaway Energy as tax equity investor in the 184 MW Lockett and 122 MW Elbow Creek wind power projects in Texas in connection with new power purchase agreements with behind-the-meter data centers at each project.
- Representing the sponsors of a planned 683 MWdc solar power project in Texas in connection with the negotiation and documentation of various power purchase agreements.
- Representing Danish investment fund AIP Management in its upstream equity investments and related mezzanine debt financing in:
- the Victory Pass and Arica solar and battery storage projects in California;
- the 379MWdc Prospero 1 solar power project in Texas;
- the 215MWdc Little Bear solar power project in California;
- the Garland and Tranquility solar and battery storage projects in California; bids for large solar power portfolios in the U.S. offered by EDP Renewables, EDF and D.E. Shaw & Co. and related negotiations
- Advising Berkshire Hathaway Energy as investor in billions of dollars of investment in over two dozen well-publicized utility-scale renewable energy projects in California, Texas and other U.S. states in recent years, including those sponsored by Lincoln Clean Energy, Innergex (f/k/a Alterra Power Corp.), Blackrock, Invenergy, Ares Capital, Longroad Energy, and Clearway; as well as the acquisitions of the Santa Rita wind project and Agua Caliente solar project.
- Advised Global Infrastructure Partners on the $1.4 billion acquisition of MAP RE/ES, the renewable energy business of MAP Energy, which develops and owns portfolios of royalty-producing interests in renewable power projects. The acquired assets include more than 1.6 gigawatts of operating wind and solar projects in the U.S.
- Represented Terna Energy, a Europe-based independent power project developer, in its acquisition, development and financing (tax equity and tiered debt) of several large utility-scale wind energy project in Texas and in its related power price hedging arrangements.
- Represented Vistra Energy in its acquisitions of development-stage power project companies.
- Represented an affiliate of Softbank Energy, a member of the Softbank group of companies, in its acquisition of a portfolio of U.S. utility-scale solar power projects with a combined capacity of more than 1.7 gigawatts and in related project financings.
- Represented The Carlyle Group in the sale of interests in the Sandersville 640 MW gas-fired power project in Georgia.
- Represented PacifCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, in its acquisitions of several development-stage wind power projects in Montana and Wyoming from Invenergy.
- Representing Orion Renewables, a U.S. power project development company, in the sale of various development-stage renewable energy projects.
- Represented Korean banks as lenders in their $325 million secured term loan refinancing of a U.S. coal mining company.
- Represented a Europe-based utility company in its potential acquisition of an electricity transmission system in the U.S.
- Represented Sempra Energy as strategic investor in its potential acquisition of a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project in Peru.
- Represented a major international commercial bank in its planned construction debt financing of two 60 MW gas-fired power projects in Argentina.
- Represented a Japanese conglomerate in its equity sponsorship of a solar power project in Chile.
- Represented a municipal electric company in Texas in its $200+ million equipment and construction services procurement contracts for a planned gas-fired power project.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Fordham University - 1997 Juris Doctor
- Johns Hopkins University - 1993 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- New York Bar