Wind and Solar Land Leases for Developers: Lender Diligence Terms and Decommissioning Security Statutes

Lauren Shapiro Newberry, Senior Counsel | Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP

Lauren Shapiro is Counsel in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Austin office, where she practices real estate and title law in the energy industry. She advises utility-scale renewable energy projects on site control and title insurance, reviews title commitments, prepares closing instruction letters, and drafts the curative instruments that resolve title defects for developers. Her transactional work includes drafting purchase and sale agreements, letter agreements, and other real estate documents for energy projects. In 2024 she was part of the Norton Rose Fulbright team that acted as real estate counsel for Sol Systems in the construction loan and tax equity financing of Phase II of the 152 MW Eldorado Solar Project in Saline County, Illinois.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Shapiro earned her JD, cum laude, from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2007 and her BA, magna cum laude, from Emory University in 2004. She is admitted to the Texas State Bar and the New Mexico State Bar.

• Recognition & Leadership

She was named to Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars in 2021.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Shapiro is a member of the Oil, Gas, and Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, the Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Section of the State Bar of New Mexico, and Women in Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE).

• Experience

Her practice centers on the land side of utility-scale renewable energy projects: establishing site control, reviewing title commitments against lender and underwriter requirements, preparing closing instruction letters, and drafting curative instruments so that title defects do not hold up a financing. She served on the firm’s real estate team for Sol Systems in both phases of the Eldorado Solar Project financing in Saline County, Illinois (March and June 2024), a utility-scale facility expected to exceed 300 MW when complete, and she drafts the purchase and sale agreements, letter agreements, and related transactional documents that accompany those closings.

Nura Azzam Yanaki, Senior Counsel | Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP

Nura Azzam Yanaki is a commercial real estate attorney in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Chicago office whose development practice covers renewable energy projects alongside retail, office, student housing, industrial, and educational properties. She drafts and negotiates the transactional documents that carry a project from acquisition through financing, including purchase and sale agreements, leases, loan agreements, development agreements, guaranties, and indemnities, and she runs due diligence on asset acquisitions and dispositions. The firm has named her on its real estate teams for Matrix Renewables’ acquisition of a 4.6 GW utility-scale solar development portfolio in the central United States, the preferred equity and debt financings of Matrix’s 210 MWac Stillhouse Solar project in Bell County, Texas, and Perennial Power Holdings’ joint venture with CEP Solar covering more than 1.5 GW of solar and battery storage projects in Virginia.

• Education & Credentials

She earned her JD, cum laude, from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 2011 and her BA, with honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2007. She is admitted to the Illinois State Bar.

• Recognition & Leadership

She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Real Estate Law (2025 edition) and was named an Associate to Watch for Illinois real estate by Chambers USA from 2018 through 2020. She serves on the board of the Arab American Bar Association of Illinois, where she was President from 2021 to 2023, and on the board of the National Arab American Bar Association.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Yanaki is a Board Member and Past President of the Arab American Bar Association of Illinois and a Board Member of the National Arab American Bar Association.

• Experience

Her renewable energy work includes the Norton Rose Fulbright teams that represented Matrix Renewables in acquiring a 4.6 GW portfolio of utility-scale solar projects from SolarStone Partners, advised Matrix on the US$376 million debt financing and preferred equity for the Stillhouse Solar project, and represented Perennial Power Holdings in forming CEP PPH Partners, LLC with CEP Solar for solar and storage development in Virginia. Her broader development experience includes representing a REIT in a sale-leaseback of 30 properties in nine states valued at approximately US$150 million, a US$70 million sale with seller financing of seven properties in four states to a charter school operator, and a REIT’s nationwide acquisition, leasing, and disposition of charter school and early childcare properties with closed transactions of approximately US$700 million. She has also handled due diligence on roughly 40 projects supporting a private equity investment of up to US$150 million in a development company, site assemblages and development loans in Raleigh and Wilmington, North Carolina, and the acquisition, disposition, and development of multi-tenant shopping centers in Illinois and Indiana.

SESSION 1 – Auditing Wind and Solar Leases Against Lender Diligence and Landowner Termination Claims | Nura Azzam Yanaki & Lauren Shapiro | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This advanced hour audits a wind or solar option-and-lease clause by clause, the way lender counsel runs site-control diligence. Each defect is sorted into one of three tiers: holds closing, cured by endorsement or estoppel, or accepted as risk. Attendees leave able to predict which defects lender counsel will refuse to close over and which endorsement or estoppel will clear, and they leave with an annotated red-flag checklist that carries sample fix language.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Wind and Solar Decommissioning Statutes | Nura Azzam Yanaki & Lauren Shapiro | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This hour surveys the statutory decommissioning security frameworks that govern wind and solar projects, with attention to the variety of approaches states have adopted. Developer-side counsel sees how salvage formulas work under statutes, such as those in Texas and Oklahoma, where the pledged-debt term shrinks the salvage credit, and how counties diverge on whether to bar, haircut, or gross up salvage. The session also covers statutory and county update cycles and the conflicts that arise when landowners demand security provisions in the lease that go above and beyond what the applicable statute requires. Attendees leave with a counsel’s review checklist for navigating the interplay between statutory decommissioning obligations and landowner requests.