Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Connections — September 2026

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Connections brings the latest developments in energy investing, legal insights, company activity, and industry events straight to your inbox.

Attorney Spotlight: Jacklyn Branby on Project Financing in the Sustainable Energy and Infrastructure Space

By Jacklyn Branby

As demand for energy infrastructure continues to grow, financing projects has become increasingly complex. In this month's Attorney Spotlight, Jacklyn Branby shares insights on the evolving project finance landscape, emerging opportunities across renewable energy and infrastructure, and what lenders look for when evaluating these transformative projects.

Read the Full Interview

143 Mintz Attorneys Earn Recognitions in The Best Lawyers in America 2027

Mintz continues to be recognized among the nation's leading law firms, with 143 attorneys named to the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in America^® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America. The honors include four prestigious "Lawyer of the Year" selections across key practice areas. See which attorneys were recognized and what these distinctions say about the depth of Mintz's legal talent.

See Which Mintz Attorneys were Recognized

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Client Feature — Antora Energy

By Thomas R. Burton, III, Sahir Surmeli

As energy demand continues to accelerate, Antora Energy is helping redefine how industries, data centers, and the grid access reliable, affordable power. Following a recently announced $550 million Series C financing, the company is expanding manufacturing capacity and scaling deployment of its groundbreaking thermal battery technology. Learn how Antora is addressing one of today's most pressing energy challenges and what this milestone means for the future of energy infrastructure.

Read More About Antora Energy

Inside Digital Infrastructure: How Will AI Get the Power It Needs?

By Steven Shparber

As AI drives unprecedented demand for power, the biggest challenge may not be generation capacity, but how the grid allocates risk and delivers energy at scale. In this installment of Inside Digital Infrastructure, Arushi Sharma Frank, Founder and Principal of Luminary Strategies, shares her perspective on Speed to Power, flexible interconnection, grid reliability, and why successful AI infrastructure developers must learn to underwrite power-delivery risk.

Explore the trends reshaping the future of digital and energy infrastructure

Mintz Represents ElevATE Semiconductor in Acquisition by Diodes Incorporated

ElevATE Semiconductor, a leading designer of integrated circuits for the automated test equipment market, has been acquired by Diodes Incorporated. The combination brings together ElevATE's specialized expertise with Diodes' global scale and broad semiconductor portfolio, creating new opportunities to support the evolving semiconductor test industry. Learn more about the transaction and what it means for the future of semiconductor innovation.

Read the Press Release

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure M&A Activity — September 2026

By Thomas R. Burton, III, Sahir Surmeli

Recent M&A Activity:

August 6, 2026: IPS Group, developer of smart parking and mobility technology designed for municipalities, universities, transportation agencies, and commercial parking operators, reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by Nayax (TAE: NYAX) for $350 million. Through this potential acquisition, Nayax and the company intend to bring together complementary capabilities in unattended commerce, pairing Nayax’s payments infrastructure and global distribution network with the company’s purpose-built smart parking hardware and software. IPS Group develops single-space parking meters, parking management software, mobile payment platforms, sensor-enabled monitoring systems, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, enabling users to manage parking operations, process payments, and collect real-time utilization data.

August 25, 2026: EKOS, developer of fleet and fuel management software designed to unify maintenance and inventory data, was acquired by Vontier (NYSE: VNT) for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will deepen Vontier’s leading fleet platform, providing a connected, end-to-end solution for operators. EKOS’s platform offers fleet management, fuel tracking, maintenance management, EV charging, TTB reporting, and inventory management, enabling fleet and energy operators to gain real-time visibility and operational control.
 

Washington Update: Critical Minerals Take Center Stage in Washington

By John Lushetsky, R. Neal Martin, John McEachern

August brought a surge of federal activity aimed at strengthening the U.S. critical minerals supply chain, including more than $2 billion in newly announced mining investments, $500 million in DOE grants, and significant financing initiatives to support domestic production and processing. This month's Washington Update examines the policy, funding, and regulatory developments shaping the future of energy storage, battery manufacturing, and critical infrastructure.

Read More About The Washington Update

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Litigation Updates — September 2026

By Jacob Hupart

State & Local Enforcement

On August 24, 2026, 16 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to the “Big Four” accounting firms, alleging that these accounting firms “appear to have violated their professional duty of independence by committing to push for climate-related disclosures in financial reporting,” as well as “creat[ing] potential conflicts of interest” relating to “pushing climate-related disclosures and reporting through the for-profit services [] offer[ed]” by these firms. This letter signals a potential new avenue for state attorneys general to challenge climate reporting and to combat ESG-focused investing. This inquiry remains in its early stages and should be monitored for future developments.

On the other side of the political aisle, five district attorneys in California announced the resolution of a greenwashing investigation against an agricultural business, which involved the payment of $5.1 million to resolve claims that, inter alia, the business “sold products labeled as ‘biodegradable’ in violation of California’s Greenwashing laws,” although the products were not in fact biodegradable. This settlement demonstrates that even local prosecutors are increasingly willing to pursue greenwashing claims against business, especially in the context of publicly advertised consumer products. 
 

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Event Highlights — September 2026

By Thomas R. Burton, III, Sahir Surmeli

Upcoming Events:

Mintz at Climate Week NYC 2026
September 20 – 27, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>

Dynamo Energy Transition Summit: Climate Week NYC 2026
September 22, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>
    
Clean Firm Power: The Current State of Philanthropy
September 22, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>

Climate Cup 2026 — Hockey Game at Chelsea Piers
September 23, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>

Climate Cup 2026 — After Party at the Canuck Bar
September 23, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>

Heavy Assets. Low Obsolescence. High Impact.
September 24, 2026
New York, NY
More info >>

Powering Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Future: A Fireside Chat with Ben Downing
September 30, 2026, 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET
Mintz, One Financial Center, Boston
Register today >>

ML Strategies and Mintz invite you to a conversation with Ben Downing, former State Senator and current Chief Executive Officer of the Mass Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), the state’s clean energy and climatetech economic development agency. Join us for a timely discussion, moderated by Steven Baddour and Tom Burton, on the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of the clean energy and climatetech economy in Massachusetts and beyond. 
 

Recent Events:

US Market Trends: Energizing AI, Trump 2.0, and Power Sector M&A Panel, Tokyo, Japan
July 28, 2026
 

During a program co-hosted with Sojitz Corporation and PEI Global Partners, Mintz Members Ayaz Shaikh and Kris Kirkwood examined the market trends shaping investment opportunities across the energy sector.

The conversation focused on how investors are responding to shifting policy priorities, growing demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers, and the need for reliable power, transmission infrastructure, and resilient supply chains.

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Team — Built For This Moment

At the frontlines of the energy and sustainability revolution since the start, our team was built for this moment: to advance innovation, transform infrastructure, and scale solutions integral to business success and a thriving planet.

We would also like to remind our readers that you can always ask us anything at mintzedge.com/ask-anything/. We built the MintzEdge website as a resource for entrepreneurs and investors, and hope that all of you take advantage of the site and see how it can help you.

Mintz Project Analysts Emma Sansom and Dian Yu contributed to this edition of the newsletter.

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