Rimon Attorneys

Contact Info

(212) 363-0270 ext. 220

buz.barclay@rimonlaw.com

Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay
New York

Energy and Infrastructure, Project Finance, Project Development, Renewable Energy and Cleantech, Startups & Startup Financing, Mergers & Acquisitions

Professional Experience

Buz Barclay focuses on business transactions in electric, natural gas, and infrastructure-related matters, and provides business counsel to a broad array of emerging companies, primarily in the sustainable technology space. His multidisciplinary practice includes start-up business counseling and financing, joint ventures, mergers and corporate and asset acquisitions, project development, project restructuring, project finance, private equity and venture capital investing. He has guided energy companies through initial public offerings in the US, and guided US energy companies through IPOs in Canada. Mr. Barclay has experience with energy efficiency products and services; compressed air, pumped hydro and other energy storage technologies and projects; wind, solar, biomass and other renewable resources; alternative fuels; coal-to-liquids; fuel cells; waste-to-energy; district heating and cooling; combined (clean) heat and power and distributed generation; and independent transmission projects.

Although his primary focus is in the domestic U.S. markets, as a project finance banker and as an attorney he has advised developers and financial advisors from Canada, China, Korea, Pakistan, Siberia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic regarding project structuring, project development, and project financing, and he has worked on project development internationally, including in Canada, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, and Trinidad.

Mr. Barclay also provides corporate, commercial, and finance counsel to a growing portfolio of emerging companies and investors in sustainable energy and environmental businesses, including cloud-based home energy managed systems, distributed thermal energy storage for air conditioners, smart meter technologies for energy efficiency and demand side management, microgrid applications, sustainable cargo transportation products, carbon nanotech R&D, compressed air energy storage companies and projects, marine wave power developers, and many others.

Professional Background

Buz has been a partner in the law firms of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Torys LLP, King & Spalding LLP, and Porter and Travers LLP, and began his legal career as one of the founders of the Energy and Project Finance Practice of Chadbourne & Parke LLP. From 1988 to 1992, he was a Vice President and senior Project Finance banker at Citibank N.A in New York City, where he was responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting, and syndicating large non-recourse financings for power and infrastructure projects.

Buz has founded leading conferences of the competitive power industry, and for a decade he has hosted the Energy and Environmental Funders Forum for the New York State Center for Economic Environmental Partnership, where emerging companies present sustainable business plans to venture, strategic, and institutional investors, government agencies and the media. Mr. Barclay has founded and served as a Director of several start-up companies in the energy field, including Endur, Inc., Ice Energy, Inc., EtherMetrics LLC, and Orion Renewable Energy Trading LLC, and he is a Director of E3 Greentech Enterprises, Inc.

In addition to his partnership with Rimon, Mr. Barclay is a Managing Director in the New York office of Marathon Capital LLC, an investment banking firm specializing in providing comprehensive financial services to clients in the global energy, infrastructure and project finance markets.

Buz has also served as an Officer in the United States Army

Bars & Courts

Admitted to the State Bar of New York

Education

University of Chicago L.L.D.
Michigan State University M.B.A., Financial Administration
University of Michigan B.A.

Publications

Mr. Barclay’s recent published articles include:

Co-author, “Post-Stimulus Legislation for the Renewable Energy Industry,” The Green Economy (June 2010)
Co-author, Opinion: The Recovery Act and the Green Economy One Year Later,” The Green Economy (April 2010)
Author, “A New PURPA for Green Schools?,” Electric Light & Power (March/April 2009)
Co-author, “Limiting Foreign Investment—the Impact of FINSA on the U.S. Utility and Power Sector,” EnergyBiz Magazine (January 2007)
Co-author, “Pragmatic Environmental Diligence Needed to Stay Competitive in Acquisition Race,” Natural Gas & Electricity (April 2007)
Co-author, “Cross-border Liquidity for U.S. Issuers,” Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2007 (April 2006)
Co-author, “Forging New Financial Instruments,”EnergyBiz Magazine (January 2006).

Experience

Mr. Barclay has provided substantial counsel in recent years to:

A startup carbon nanotech manufacturing company in its corporate funding initiatives, and its negotiation of critical consulting and joint development agreements.
The leading provider of Renewable Energy Certificates in the United States in a $7 million Series B preferred stock investment by a U.K. environmental investment company;
A family corporation with substantial acreage in Northeastern Pennsylvania in its negotiation of a lease with major drillers for the exploitation of natural gas reserves through hydro fracturing (fracking) while preserving the essential historical and recreational significance of the property for future generations.
A joint venture of a private individual and the subsidiary of a large public utility holding company in the assessment of its commercial contracts and the development of commercial applications for its patented compressed air energy and power augmentation storage technologies;
The developer of a 200 MW wind project in Montana in early stage Power Purchase Agreement and transmission matters;
The developer of a small wind farm in Michigan in disputes with an investor owned electric utility over interconnection and PPA matters;
The developer of a 500 kV transmission line and associated pumped storage hydroelectric project in Southern California, in regard to development financing and other development issues;
A major telecommunications company in its negotiation of contracts with vendors to supply, construct, and operate a large fuel cell facility at a major telecommunications switch;
The first manufacturer of distributed thermal energy storage systems for commercial air conditioning in negotiating, documenting, and closing the first major sale of distributed thermal energy storage systems in the world to a group of customer-owned electric utilities in southern California;
The developers of a large compressed air energy storage project at a unique geological formation in the Midwest United States;
A start-up compressed air energy storage R&D company in its formation, corporate funding initiatives, and transition to manufacturing;
A U.S. private equity fund in its C$1.7 billion acquisition of a Canadian energy infrastructure company, as well as $900 million in follow-on bank and capital markets financings in the United States and Canada;
A wind power technology company in the negotiation of disputes with suppliers and contractors regarding the ownership and licensing of intellectual property;
The initial public offering of the leading central district heating and cooling company in the United States, with operations in eight major cities;
The initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange of an income trust holding a U.S. company with 30 landfill gas facilities across the eastern United States;
The initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange of an income trust holding four bottoming cycle gas-fired cogeneration projects in northern Indiana;
A consortium of companies in the renewable energy space in the formation and funding of a new renewable energy and efficiency joint venture aimed at private investment in inside-the-meter renewable energy projects for schools;
A Canadian private equity fund in its acquisition of a Canadian income trust holding power project assets in the United States;
The largest owner/operator of biomass power projects in North America in the restructuring and equity refinancing of a portfolio of ten biomass and hydroelectric projects in the United States;
A Calgary-based independent power owner/operator in acquiring four gas-fired power projects in four states, including one cogeneration facility from three different sellers, including one regulated electric utility;
A Canadian income fund in acquiring and financing the purchase of two 50 MW gas-fired cogeneration facilities in California;
The underwriters in the dual-listed (TSX and Nasdaq) IPO of a U.S. company with a reverse-auction platform to serve buyers and sellers of competitive power;
Wind power project developers in negotiating turbine supply, warranty, and operations & maintenance contracts
A Canadian pension fund negotiating a significant minority stake in a U.S. developer of wind power projects
An investment partnership in its successful development of a 49 MW peaking power project on Long Island, New York

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