In addition to our work on a large variety of energy project financings, the Foley Energy Team has financed hundreds of C&I solar projects and together our team has experience with mostly all forms of C&I project documents in the market. In an industry that boasts over 60 different forms of PPA, some much better than others, knowing how to make your project documents financeable is of paramount importance. We know that all companies face challenges with internal legal and compliance training and decided that sharing a Manual that can be used as an ongoing reference tool would be far more useful to our clients than a one-hour seminar. We are therefore sharing this Commercial & Industrial Solar Due Diligence Review Manual for Tax Equity Transactions with you to help your legal and business teams ensure that you do not have to make costly and frustrating amendments when it comes time to finance your projects.
This Manual highlights what financing parties look for when they undertake due diligence, explains what provisions to include in project documentation and why such provisions are important. It contains guidelines to keep in mind while reviewing or negotiating a set of C&I solar project documents, followed in each section by a "checklist" of items to confirm you have evaluated the key aspects of the applicable document. We have included a sample "Due Diligence Summary" that we provide to financing party clients for each C&I solar project – it's a handy reference tool that contains the most basic document terms and a section on highlighted issues (Financing Party Notes). If developers provided something like this to financing parties upfront, together with a well-organized dataroom, then diligence costs would most definitely go down.
Most of us who work in the solar market landed here not just because we enjoy projects, but also because we believe that solar is the future. The better the project documents, the smoother the financing, and the more projects get done – and then suddenly, the future is brighter.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.