On-Site Energy & Grid
Energy assets on real estate.
Advisory for energy assets embedded in real estate: rooftop and carport solar, battery storage, microgrids, and EV charging on commercial and multifamily properties. We advise owners on how behind-the-meter assets change underwriting at refinancing, and arrange financing where the asset carries its own contracted revenue: C&I power purchase agreements, energy service agreements, and charging infrastructure with usage or availability contracts. This is a narrower capital pool than mainstream CRE debt, and we treat it that way: fewer lenders, more structure, longer diligence.
Market Commentary
Where the capital sits.
United States
Behind-the-meter energy changes a property before it changes its financing. Where the asset produces contracted revenue, a lender can underwrite it; where it only reduces an owner's utility bill, it usually arrives as an expense line and an encumbrance on the roof rather than as collateral. Public support has moved in both directions over the past eighteen months and belongs in any timing decision. The federal NEVI charging program, $5 billion authorized across fiscal 2022 to 2026 at an 80 percent federal cost share, was frozen in January 2025 and restarted under revised guidance in September 2025 (Congressional Research Service, congress.gov). The USDA Rural Energy for America Program paused its grant window on March 31, 2026 while its guaranteed loan program stayed open (USDA Rural Development, 2026). The EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, $20 billion, was terminated and remains in litigation, so capital that depended on it should be treated as unavailable (Inside Climate News, March 11, 2026). Charging is the hardest of these to finance. There is no established non-recourse debt market for charging revenue, so site-level deals are generally secured by the real estate or carried on corporate credit instead.
United Kingdom
Our UK coverage here is debt advisory. Behind-the-meter solar, storage, and charging on UK commercial and residential stock are financed by a small group of clearing and challenger banks and specialist funds, and most of it reaches the market inside a property refinancing rather than as standalone energy paper. Minimum energy efficiency standards make the underlying question a familiar one for any UK lender: what the asset does to the building's rating, its running costs, and its lettability at the next rent review. We advise on the debt: sizing, structure, and running the lender process.
Scope
Where the boundary sits.
Most of what sits in this category is real estate credit wearing an energy asset. A rooftop system that lowers a landlord's operating expense is underwritten inside the property loan, and the negotiation that matters is with the existing mortgage holder over lien position, access, and removal rights, not with a project finance bank. Only when the asset carries its own contracted revenue, a commercial and industrial power purchase agreement, an energy service agreement, or a capacity contract, does it become financeable in its own right, and at that point a much smaller set of lenders prices it. We cover both, and we tell a client which of the two they are in before the process starts rather than after a lender has said no.
Capital Sources
Active lenders for on-site energy & grid.
The lenders who are actually transacting today, by capital type and typical profile.
Balance sheet and relationship banks
Usually the incumbent property lender, whose consent and lien position have to be resolved before anything gets installed. The energy asset is underwritten inside the property credit.
Specialty energy lenders
Distributed generation, efficiency, and storage lenders who underwrite the energy contract rather than the building, and who will lend at the project level on a portfolio of sites.
Equipment finance and lease providers
Solar, storage, and charging hardware financed through a lease or service agreement so the equipment sits outside the mortgage and off the owner's balance sheet.
State green banks and public programs
Concessional and co-lending capital where a state program is active, generally alongside private debt rather than instead of it.
Infrastructure credit funds
Relevant once a portfolio is large enough to carry project finance structure, with reserves, a waterfall, and contracted revenue at the center of the credit.
Execution
What we place.
Sector-specific execution across the full capital stack, structured around the business plan rather than a template.
Behind-the-meter solar and storage financed without breaching the lien and consent provisions of the existing mortgage
Energy service agreements and commercial and industrial power purchase agreements structured so the revenue is financeable
Lender consents, estoppels, and non-disturbance agreements negotiated with the senior mortgage holder before installation
Charging sites financed against the real estate or a contracted availability payment rather than against utilization
Portfolio facilities across an owner's existing assets instead of one financing per site
Refinancing analysis showing how a behind-the-meter asset moves NOI, expense recovery, and appraised value
Execution
How we finance on-site energy & grid.
Behind-the-meter solar and storage financed without breaching the lien and consent provisions of the existing mortgage
Energy service agreements and commercial and industrial power purchase agreements structured so the revenue is financeable
Lender consents, estoppels, and non-disturbance agreements negotiated with the senior mortgage holder before installation
Charging sites financed against the real estate or a contracted availability payment rather than against utilization
Portfolio facilities across an owner's existing assets instead of one financing per site
Refinancing analysis showing how a behind-the-meter asset moves NOI, expense recovery, and appraised value
Diligence
What a lender asks for first.
The documents that decide whether a financing is quotable. Missing any of them changes the process rather than the price.
- Existing mortgage documents and lender consent
- Lien and alterations provisions, whether the equipment can be severed, and the consent, estoppel, or non-disturbance agreement the energy lender will require.
- Host or offtake contract
- Power purchase agreement, energy service agreement, or availability contract, with term, escalators, and the credit of the party paying.
- Interconnection and utility approval
- Net metering or export arrangement, utility interconnection approval, and any standby or demand charges the model has to carry.
- Roof or structural condition and warranty
- Remaining roof life against system life, structural loading, and whether the installation voids an existing warranty.
- Site control
- Lease, easement, or license covering the equipment footprint and access for the full term, including at a change of building ownership.
- Incentive and program documentation
- State and utility incentives, program awards, and evidence that any grant or concessional element is still available and not subject to clawback.
Newsletter
Stay current on behind-the-meter energy capital markets.
Quarterly sector commentary, capital stack benchmarks, and where the lending market is moving.
Ready to Transact
Working on a behind-the-meter energy deal?
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