Rachel Conrad

Associate

Rachel Conrad is a corporate attorney whose practice is focused primarily on renewable energy project finance, as well as renewable energy project mergers and acquisitions. She regularly represents sponsors, lenders, and investors in complex project financings — including construction and term debt financings, back-leverage debt financings, partnership flips, and inverted leases. She is a member of the Finance Practice Group and Energy Sector within Foley & Lardner LLP.

Rachel has broad experience in the renewable energy space related to financing both small-scale and utility-scale projects, with the bulk of her experience relating to solar, energy storage, and wind projects. She also has experience assisting sponsors with early-stage project development, including drafting and negotiating engineering, procurement, and construction agreements, module supply agreements, and battery supply agreements. In addition to her renewables practice, she also advises clients on general corporate and business law, with an emphasis on early-stage financing through private equity and venture capital.

Rachel was a summer associate and law clerk with Foley before joining the firm as an associate. During law school, she was a student attorney at the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic in Madison, where she assisted entrepreneurial clients with general formation, nonprofit and contract issues.

Representative Experience

  • Acted as sponsor counsel for a 300 MWac solar and 600 MWh battery storage project in New Mexico, involving nearly $1 billion in combined capital commitments
  • Acted as lender counsel in the financing of two portfolios consisting of six total solar projects located in Georgia and Tennessee, totaling 517 MWac in size, for a total of $687 million in debt financing
  • Advised sponsor in the restructuring of a solar plus storage project from ITC to ITC plus PTC financing
  • Negotiated utility purchase of a 100 MW wind project in Oklahoma
  • Worked as sponsor counsel for a portfolio of six projects in Utah and Michigan of more than 600 MWac involving nearly $1 billion in combined capital commitments
  • Advised seller on the sale of 500 MWdc solar portfolio
  • Acted as sponsor counsel in the financing of a 239 MW, three-phase solar project in Michigan involving more than $160 million in tax equity commitments and $380 million in debt financing
10 January 2024 Deals and Wins

Foley Represents Subsidiaries of American Electric Power Company and PNM Resources in Agreement to Sell New Mexico Solar Assets

Foley represented subsidiaries of American Electric Power and PNM Resources in the agreement to sell their renewables joint venture, New Mexico Renewable Development, LLC, to Exus North America Holdings, LLC for approximately $230 million.
11 July 2023 Dashboard Insights

Electrified Industrial Policy: IRS Proposed Regulations on Section 30D EV Tax Credits & EV Manufacturing Grants

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 set in motion an ongoing series of changes that are aimed at transforming, among other things, the automotive sector in the United States.
07 March 2023 Blogs

New Rules for the EV Tax Credit under the Inflation Reduction Act

The IRS recently released guidance regarding the changes to the Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit under Section 30D of the Internal Revenue Code, which was most recently amended under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
06 May 2022 Blogs

Recent Memorandum from Commerce regarding Solar Circumvention Investigation

On May 2, 2022, Commerce released a memorandum to “All Interested Parties” that clarifies the scope of the investigation into the alleged circumvention of tariffs on certain solar cells and solar modules imported into the United States from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia, originally announced by Commerce on March 28, 2022.
24 February 2022 Blogs

U.S. DOT Releases NEVI Formula Program Guidance, Giving Public and Private Stakeholders a Roadmap for EV Infrastructure Funding

After collecting public comment, the U.S. Department of Transportation released its guidance for the NEVI Formula Program on February 10, 2022.