Solar & Battery Storage
Offtake decides the financing.
Financing advisory for solar and battery storage projects and portfolios: construction debt, term debt, tax equity, and tax credit transfer. We advise sponsors on structures that combine back-leverage with tax equity or transferability, and on how offtake shape (contracted PPA, hedged, or merchant) drives lender appetite and sizing. Coverage spans community solar, commercial and industrial systems, and storage co-located with assets we already finance. Where a mandate needs a project finance bank rather than a real estate lender, we build the process around the right pool of capital and say so up front.
Market Commentary
Where the capital sits.
United States
Two things set sizing on a solar or storage financing: what share of revenue is contracted, and for how long relative to the debt. LevelTen Energy put continental average solar offers at $61.40 per MWh and wind at $83.79 in the second quarter of 2026, with solar down 4.8% on the quarter, its first decline in two years, and wind up 17.5% year over year (LevelTen Energy, Q2 2026 North American PPA Price Index). Contracted cash flow is sized at a tight coverage ratio and merchant cash flow at a much wider one, and the smaller of the two results governs the loan. Federal credits still set the timetable. Under the July 2025 budget law, wind and solar projects that did not begin construction by July 4, 2026 must be placed in service by December 31, 2027 to claim the 45Y and 48E credits, and foreign entity of concern rules now apply to the supply chain behind them (Latham & Watkins, analysis of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, 2025). Credit transfer under Section 6418 has become a routine repayment source: Crux estimated $55 billion to $60 billion of total tax credit monetization in 2025, with investment-grade sellers pricing around $0.92 to $0.96 on the dollar (Crux, 2025 Market Intelligence Report).
United Kingdom
Our UK coverage here is debt advisory. Sterling lending for solar and storage sits with a smaller group than the US market: clearing and challenger banks on contracted portfolios, European banks running project finance desks, and infrastructure credit funds for structures that need sculpted amortization and funded reserves rather than a mortgage. The credit questions travel. A grid connection with a credible energization date, an offtake or optimization contract a committee can underwrite, and a contractor who can carry a fixed price and a fixed date all decide the outcome before pricing does. We advise on the debt: sizing, structure, and running the lender process.
Scope
Where the boundary sits.
This is project finance credit rather than mortgage credit, and the difference is worth stating plainly. A solar or storage lender underwrites a contract stack inside a bankruptcy-remote project company: the offtake agreement, the construction contract and its liquidated damages, the operations and maintenance agreement, and the interconnection rights. Sizing runs on cash flow available for debt service, with amortization sculpted to hold a coverage target and reserves funded at closing, not on a loan-to-value against hardware that has limited alternative use. We work the debt side of that stack and the lenders who fund it, and we advise on how a tax equity partnership or a credit transfer sits above and beside that debt. We are not a tax equity investor or a credit transfer buyer, and we do not substitute for the project finance counsel, tax counsel, and independent engineer a deal of this kind requires.
Capital Sources
Active lenders for solar & battery storage.
The lenders who are actually transacting today, by capital type and typical profile.
Bank energy and project finance desks
Construction-to-term facilities that fund the build and convert at commercial operation. Regional bank energy desks are the accessible end of this market for distributed portfolios; the global arranger banks lead utility-scale syndications.
Infrastructure debt funds
Senior and junior term paper sculpted to the contracted cash flow, with more tolerance for merchant tail and construction risk than a bank and pricing that reflects it.
Life companies and private placement buyers
Long-dated investment-grade project debt on fully contracted operating assets, bought as a private placement against a strong offtaker.
Specialty and state green banks
Distributed generation, community solar, and efficiency lenders that underwrite the energy contract itself, alongside state green banks lending on commercial terms next to private capital.
Warehouse and securitization
Warehouse facilities that aggregate distributed assets and the solar ABS market that takes them out once the portfolio is large and seasoned enough to rate.
Execution
What we place.
Sector-specific execution across the full capital stack, structured around the business plan rather than a template.
Construction-to-term facilities that convert at commercial operation once completion tests are met
Tax credit bridge and transfer bridge facilities repaid from credit sale or tax equity funding
Back-leverage structured above a tax equity partnership and secured by sponsor distributions
Term debt sized separately on contracted and merchant cash flow, with the binding case governing proceeds
Portfolio financings across community solar, commercial and industrial systems, and co-located storage
Debt sized around the tax equity partnership rather than through it, because the partnership takes structural seniority at the project level
Execution
How we finance solar & battery storage.
Construction-to-term facilities that convert at commercial operation once completion tests are met
Tax credit bridge and transfer bridge facilities repaid from credit sale or tax equity funding
Back-leverage structured above a tax equity partnership and secured by sponsor distributions
Term debt sized separately on contracted and merchant cash flow, with the binding case governing proceeds
Portfolio financings across community solar, commercial and industrial systems, and co-located storage
Debt sized around the tax equity partnership rather than through it, because the partnership takes structural seniority at the project level
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.
- Interconnection agreement or grid connection offer
- Queue position, study status, network upgrade cost allocation, and the energization date the deal is actually built around.
- Offtake contract
- PPA, tolling agreement, hedge, or capacity contract, with tenor against debt tenor, offtaker credit, and how any merchant tail is treated.
- EPC contract and equipment supply
- Fixed price and date certain with liquidated damages, plus module, inverter, and cell supply agreements and their delivery schedule.
- Independent engineer report and production study
- Third-party technical review with P50 and P99 production cases, the two scenarios a lender sizes and stresses against.
- Site control and permits
- Land lease or easement covering the full debt term plus decommissioning, with local permits and environmental approvals in hand.
- Tax credit documentation
- Begin-construction or placed-in-service evidence, prevailing wage and apprenticeship records, domestic content support, and foreign entity of concern diligence on the supply chain.
Newsletter
Stay current on solar or storage capital markets.
Quarterly sector commentary, capital stack benchmarks, and where the lending market is moving.
Ready to Transact
Working on a solar or storage deal?
Send us the basics. We'll come back with a capital strategy, indicative pricing, and the short list of lenders worth talking to.