Javad Asghari

Based in New York and Los Angeles, Javad Asghari is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s Energy and Infrastructure Practice, where he focuses on major energy and infrastructure projects in the Americas and around the globe. In the last three years, he has advised on the acquisition or disposition of more than 85 energy projects totaling more than 14 GW for clients including developers and private equity funds involved in the energy and infrastructure sectors. 

Javad currently serves as a member of the Firm’s Recruiting Committee.

He has a particular focus on (i) mergers and acquisitions of E&I projects and (ii) project development, including advising on joint venture, governance and commercial agreements (including concession, construction and offtake agreements) with respect to the development of renewable and conventional power generation; transmission and distribution projects; upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum and renewable hydrocarbon projects; LNG projects; and electrical vehicle infrastructure developments.

• LS Power in respect of the development of various transmission infrastructure projects, including the (i) 1,200 MW, 160-mile, Arostook Renewable Energy Gateway transmission project in Maine, (ii) New Jersey Offshore Wind PB transmission infrastructure solicitation and (iii) SWIP-North transmission project, from Idaho to California;
• LS Power in respect of dozens of acquisitions, disposals, auction processes, joint ventures and financings, including its (i) $400 million green-hydrogen partnership with Monarch Energy, (ii) acquisition of the 1,124 MW CCGT Hummel Power Station located in PA from Siemens Financial Services and Panda Power Funds, (iii) auction sale of the 516 MW Carville and 1,127 MW Oneta CCGT projects to Argo Infrastructure Partners, (iv) acquisition of 42 run-of-the river hydroelectric facilities in ISO-NE, PJM, NYISO, CAISO, SERC and WECC from Hull Street Energy, (v) the joint operating arrangements in respect of the 24,000MWh/3GW Bath County pumped hydro storage facility – at the time, the second largest energy storage project in the world, (vi) acquisition of 25 utility scale solar projects across 14 states from PSEG, and the related financing, (vii) acquisition of distributed energy infrastructure solutions provider, Endurant Energy, (viii) BluSail Renewable ‘waste to energy’ joint venture with BioStar Renewables and ARM Energy, (ix) acquisition of the 810 MW Hunterstown CCGT facility in PJM and (x) acquisition of a 2.1 GW portfolio of gas-fired projects in Texas from Brazos Electric pursuant to a Ch 11 plan;
• BlackRock Alternatives in respect of its joint venture with Daimler Truck and NextEra Energy Resources to develop and operate (i) hydrogen refueling and (ii) electric truck fast chargers in major transport corridors across the United States;
• BlackRock in respect of its auction sale of the 240 MW Big Sky wind generation project in PJM to Vitol;
• SoftBank Energy in respect of project financing arrangements for its (i) 250MW_DC Aragorn project in Texas, (ii) 350 MW_DC Athos I project in California, (iii) 300 MW_DC Athos II project in California, (iv) 425 MW_DC Juno project in Texas and (v) 375 MW_DC project in Texas;
• ArcLight Capital Partners in respect of various power generation acquisitions, bids, and commercialization arrangements, including the power purchase tolling arrangements for the Arthur Kill facility, and the power purchase tolling arrangements for the ISO-NE Montville and Middletown facilities in CT;
• Toyota Tsusho and JERA in respect of their sale of the 875 MW Goreway Power Station in Ontario, Canada to Capital Power;
• EVgo in respect of its joint development with General Motors and Pilot Flying J of 2,000 electric vehicle fast chargers across 13 states across the United States;
• EVgo in respect of its development partnership with General Motors to add 2,700 fast-chargers across 40 cities;
• Pacific Traverse Energy in respect of its gas transportation and offtake arrangements for the Cedar LNG project in British Columbia, Canada;
• The lenders in respect of Dominion Energy’s $3 billion project financing for its Cove Point LNG project;
• GEVO in respect of the construction and financing arrangements for its $68,000,000 PAB green bond project financing for its renewable natural gas project in Iowa; and
• Actis in respect of the acquisition financing of a $1.3 billion power generation and infrastructure portfolio in Mexico from InterGen, comprising a 2.2 GW portfolio of six CCGT gas-fired projects, a 155 MW wind project, and certain gas compression and transmission infrastructure.

Javad received his LL.B from the University of Melbourne. He is admitted to practice in California, New York and Texas. He contributed to the USA chapter of the International Comparative Legal Guide to Project Finance in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.