Brian Nese

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Brian Nese is office managing partner for the firm’s three California offices and practices in the Energy Development group and the Renewable and Thermal Energy Initiatives. He is a former co-leader of the firm’s energy team. Brian focuses his practice on representing renewable energy project developers, owners and operators, in drafting and negotiating various project documents, including engineering, procurement and construction agreements, operation and maintenance agreements, balance of plant agreements, supply agreements, and real property agreements. Brian also assists project developers with mergers and acquisitions, financings and related due diligence. He encourages you to follow him on Twitter @BNese25 and welcomes LinkedIn connection requests.

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California CCAs, including San Diego Community Power, Receive Proposed Decision for 2019 RPS Plan

By Bo Harvey and Brian Nese on Posted in California, Energy Policy, Renewable
On August 19, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision accepting the 2019 Renewables Portfolio Standard Procurement Plans submitted by four new Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs): Butte Choice Energy Authority; Clean Energy Alliance; the City of Santa Barbara; and San Diego Community Power.  Each of these CCAs is anticipated to start providing … Continue Reading

Ninth Circuit Strikes Down California ReMAT in Winding Creek Solar Case

By Seth Hilton, Jason Johns, Sarah Kozal, Jennifer Mersing, Brian Nese and Allison Smith on Posted in California, Litigation, Solar
On July 29, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision in Winding Creek Solar LLC v. Peterman et al., ruling that California’s feed-in tariff for small qualifying facilities (QFs), the Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (ReMAT), violates the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) (Ninth Circuit Case No. 17-17531). ReMAT … Continue Reading

Key Energy Related Bills Introduced in the 2019-2020 Legislative Session

By Seth Hilton, Sarah Kozal and Brian Nese on Posted in Biofuels, California, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Energy Storage, Environmental, Regulation, Renewable, RFP, Solar, Transmission, Wind
The 2019-2020 California Legislative Session has reached its first deadline.  February 22, 2019 marked the deadline by which bills could be introduced for the first half of the Legislative Session. Lawmakers will begin Spring Recess April 12 and reconvene April 22.  The last day for bills to be passed out of the house of origin … Continue Reading

Proposed Changes to CAISO’s Resource Adequacy Framework

By Sarah Kozal and Brian Nese on Posted in California
The CAISO is proposing several changes to the Resource Adequacy framework that will be relevant to generators both within and outside of California. CAISO is in the initial stages of developing their policy changes and it is a good time to voice concerns or offer suggestions before the changes are solidified.  We expect more than … Continue Reading

Updates to Energy-Related Bills in the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session

By Brian Nese and Sarah Kozal on Posted in California, Energy Policy, Regulation, Renewable, Solar
Stoel Rives’ Energy Team has been monitoring and providing summaries of key energy-related bills introduced by California legislators since the beginning of the 2017-2018 legislative session. Legislators have been busy moving bills through the legislative process since reconvening from the spring recess. Below is a summary and status of bills we have been following. An … Continue Reading

Solar PPA Provider That Only “Arranges” Installation of System It Owns Is Not a “Contractor” in California

By Brian Nese and Tamara Boeck on Posted in California, Solar
In the recently issued but unpublished decision Reed v. SunRun, Inc. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC498002, Feb. 2, 2018), the Second District Court of Appeal ruled that a solar power purchase agreement (“PPA”) provider that only sells solar energy to homeowners is not required to be a licensed California contractor under certain circumstances. … Continue Reading

Updates to Energy Related Bills in the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session

By Brian Nese, Kimberly Hellwig and Parissa Florez on Posted in California, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Energy Storage, Environmental, Regulation, Renewable, RFP, Siting, Solar
Stoel Rives’ Energy Team has been monitoring and providing summaries of key energy-related bills introduced by California legislators since the beginning of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. Legislators have been busy moving bills through the legislative process since reconvening from the Summer Recess. For any bill not identified as a two-year bill, the deadline for each … Continue Reading

Updates to Energy Related Bills in the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session

By Brian Nese, Parissa Florez and Kimberly Hellwig on Posted in California, Cleantech, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environmental, Regulation, Renewable, RFP, Siting, Solar, Transmission
Stoel Rives’ Energy Team has been monitoring and providing summaries of key energy-related bills introduced by California legislators since the beginning of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. June 2, 2017 was the deadline by which the legislature was required to pass bills out of the house of origin.  Failing to meet that deadline does not automatically … Continue Reading

Updates to Energy Related Bills in the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session

By Brian Nese, Parissa Florez and Kimberly Hellwig on Posted in California, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Energy Storage, Environmental, Green Building, Regulation, Renewable, Solar
In our first post, the Stoel Rives’ Energy Team provided a summary of energy related bills introduced by California legislators during the first half of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. Provided below is a summary of changes to bills we have been following, as well as a list of energy related bills not included in our … Continue Reading

California Lawmakers Introduce Clean Peak Standard Legislation

By Brian Nese, Brian Orion and Parissa Florez on Posted in California, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Energy Storage, Environmental, Integration, Regulation, Renewable, Smart Energy, Solar, Wind
Two new bills, similar in concept but differing in approach, seek to align renewable energy output with peak electricity demand. Currently, the California Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires investor-owned utilities to procure 50% of total retail sales of electricity from renewable energy resources by 2030. If enacted, the bills would expand the RPS from a … Continue Reading

Results from California’s First Community Solar RFO

By Brian Orion and Brian Nese on Posted in California, Community Solar, Renewable, Solar
The first round of procurement under California’s community solar program is nearly complete, and the early results suggest that no power purchase agreements (“PPAs”) will be awarded. Background on the RFO California’s community solar program is formally known as the Enhanced Community Renewables (“ECR”) program. The ECR program is part of the larger Green Tariff … Continue Reading

California Energy Related Bills Introduced in the 2017-2018 Legislative Session

By Brian Nese, Parissa Florez and Kimberly Hellwig on Posted in California, Energy Policy, Energy Storage, FERC, Regulation, Solar
February 17, 2017 marked the deadline by which legislators had to introduce bills for the first half of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. The Stoel Rives’ Energy Team has been and will continue to monitor bills throughout the two-year session and will provide periodic updates as to the status of those bills. Most noteworthy here is … Continue Reading

SDG&E Seeks Projects for Community Renewables Program

By Brian Nese on Posted in Renewable
Via my colleague Xiaowan Mao: On August 31, 2016, SDG&E will issue one ECR Request for Offers (“RFO”), seeking contracts with facilities that produce Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)-eligible energy for the purpose of implementing its ECR program. In this solicitation, SDG&E is seeking PPAs for the ECR program only. This solicitation is not requesting bids … Continue Reading

California CPUC Votes to Retain Net Metering, With Modifications

By Brian Nese on Posted in Distributed Generation, Energy Policy, Renewable, Solar
The California Public Utilities Commission yesterday adopted – by a 3-2 vote – a proposed decision revising the net energy metering (NEM) tariff for customers of the state’s three largest utilities who install renewable distributed generation (DG) on their properties. To the dismay of the dissenting commissioners, the final decision adopted late proposed changes that exclude … Continue Reading

CPUC Proposes to Preserve Retail Rates for Residential Distributed Generation

By Brian Nese and Emma Fazio on Posted in California, Distributed Generation, Energy Policy, Regulation, Renewable, Solar
The California Public Utilities Commission released a proposed decision yesterday in its proceeding concerning the future of net energy metering (NEM) for customers of the state’s three largest utilities who install renewable distributed generation (DG) on their properties. In comments filed in early-August, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SGE), and San Diego … Continue Reading

CPUC Set to Tackle Net Metering Debate with New Distributed Generation Tariff

By Brian Nese and Emma Fazio on Posted in California, Distributed Generation, Regulation, Solar
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) could soon make big changes to how rooftop solar installations function in the state. Under Assembly Bill 327, enacted in 2013, the CPUC has until December 31, 2015 to “develop a standard contract or tariff” that applies to “customer-generators” who own rooftop solar installations or other distributed generation and … Continue Reading

California’s New Streamlined #Solar Permitting Law Goes into Effect

By Brian Nese on Posted in California, Siting, Solar
Over the weekend, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 2188, which is designed to streamline the permitting process for small rooftop solar systems. The new law seeks to give California’s Million Solar Roofs target a boost by establishing a state wide “modernized and standardized permitting process.” The new law amends Section 714 of the California … Continue Reading

SDG&E Issues Max 800 MW All-Source RFO, with caveat

By Brian Nese on Posted in California, Energy Storage, Renewable, RFP
We recently learned that San Diego Gas and Electric has issued a 2014 All Source Request for Offers (RFO). The RFO requests offers for up to 800 MW from the following resources: Energy Efficiency (EE) Demand Response (DR) Renewables Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Energy Storage Conventional Distributed Generation (DG) The RFO is authorized by CPUC Decision 14-03-004. The … Continue Reading

City of Palo Alto Issues Community Solar RFP

By Brian Nese on Posted in Community Solar, RFP, Solar
On July 1, 2014, the City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to create a CPAU-branded Community Solar Program. According to CPAU, "the primary objectives for the program are 1) to help facilitate reaching the City’s target of meeting 4% of its energy needs from local solar energy by 2023 (from 0.7% in 2013), … Continue Reading

SDG&E Issues Renewables RFO

By Brian Nese on Posted in California, Renewable, RFP, Solar, Wind
On December 16, 2013, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) issued its 2013 Request for Offers ("RFO") seeking Eligible Renewable Resources. This solicitation will facilitate SDG&E’s compliance with California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (“RPS”). The solicitation seeks Eligible Renewable Resources from all types of renewable technologies providing both Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs”) and Energy (“Bundled … Continue Reading

Post-Conference Report: Solar Power International 2013

By Brian Nese on Posted in FERC, Solar
Thousands of solar industry participants gathered in Chicago for the Solar Power International expo in Chicago, Illinois on October 21-24 to discuss the state of the solar industry. Participatnts included banks, investors, developers and equipment suppliers, and also several Stoel Rives attorneys. Many themes emerged during the week-long event, and a common thread running through these … Continue Reading

Solar Panels Proposed as Hazardous Waste under DTSC

By Brian Nese on Posted in California, Solar
My colleagues Wayne Rosenbaum and Ryan Waterman authored, "DTSC Rulemaking Proposes to Classify All Discarded Solar Panels As Hazardous Waste" today on our California Environmental Law blog.  On June 27, California’s Department of Toxic Substance Control (“DTSC”) announced a 15 day comment period on new regulations concerning the disposal of photovoltaic (PV) modules—broadly defined as … Continue Reading

KenGen Issues Invitation to Geothermal Developers

By Brian Nese on Posted in Geothermal
The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has issued an invitation for pre-qualification for selection of developers for a 560 megawatt geothermal project pipeline.  The government of Kenya has granted KenGen a license to develop geothermal power plants in the Olkaria geothermal field located in the Rift Valley in Kenya.  KenGen is embarking on a program to … Continue Reading

Georgia Power Files for Advanced Solar Initiative

By Brian Nese on Posted in Renewable, RFP, Solar
On September 26, 2012, Georgia Power filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission a proposal for the creation of the Georgia Power Advanced Solar Initiative, a program that would result in the procurement of up to 210 megawatts of solar generation through power purchase agreements. Of the 210 MWs, 180 will come from utility scale projects … Continue Reading
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