Trends in capital availability for clean energy and manufacturing projects

Many factors influence capital cost and availability for a given clean energy project. Investors are diverse, as are the types of projects they’re willing to invest in, the risk factors they consider, and their expectations regarding returns. 

To better understand the current state of capital availability, Crux conducted a survey of project finance lenders and investors in March and April of 2025. We received responses representing more than $225 billion in total capital allocation to energy and manufacturing projects across the project lifecycle. 

Go deeper: Read the full report on lending and investments

Types of investment

Crux collected data about various stages of the project development lifecycle, including:

• Development capital (or pre-NTP): Capital provided during early-stage project development to fund permitting, interconnection, and procurement activities prior to notice to proceed (NTP).
• Tax credit/tax equity bridge lending: Short-term financing that advances capital to a project based on the expected monetization of tax credits or tax equity investment.
• Construction lending: Senior debt used to fund capital expenditures during the construction phase, typically repaid or refinanced at project completion.
• Term lending: Long-term debt secured by project assets and cash flows, typically used post-construction to finance operations or refinance construction debt.
• Traditional tax equity: Investment structure where an investor provides capital in return for the majority of a project’s tax benefits (e.g., investment tax credits [ITCs], production tax credits [PTCs], and depreciation), commonly using partnership-flip or lease-pass-through structures. 
• Hybrid tax equity: Combines elements of traditional tax equity with tax credit transferability to optimize tax benefit utilization and investor returns, often called a transferability flip or t-flip.
• Preferred/minority equity: Alternative tax equity investment structure that provides capital in exchange for transferable tax credit proceeds and ongoing preferred distributions but does not monetize depreciation benefits.

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Capital is more affordable and available for established technologies

Capital is generally the most available and affordable for solar (including solar + storage) and wind energy projects with investment-grade (IG) sponsors. Solar energy projects benefit from the widest availability of capital across the entire project finance lifecycle, with, in aggregate, more than 90% of survey respondents indicating that they are willing to invest in solar projects from the pre-NTP stage to term loan/long-term financing.

Storage projects have similarly strong capital access, while onshore wind projects generally saw less robust capital access across the development cycle.

Availability of capital for established energy technologies

[Figure 4]

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Bar chart showing the percentage of investors that noted they’re willing to invest in solar, storage, and wind projects across the range of investment types.

More investors are considering newer technologies

Solar, storage, and wind projects are just one part of the large and diverse energy complex. The universe of projects that fall into the less-established category is wide, ranging from clean fuels and carbon capture projects to nuclear plants, geothermal, critical minerals production, advanced manufacturing facilities, and more. 

The tax credits for these technologies have important differences relative to the conventional electricity credits, which can make securing financing for new infrastructure more complex. However, a rising share of investors is starting to look at new technologies — in particular at advanced manufacturing projects. Between 30 and 50% of the investors surveyed indicated that they were open to investing in new manufacturing infrastructure through the development lifecycle.

Availability of investment for less-established technologies

[Figure 5]

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Bar chart showing the percentage of surveyed investors that said they were willing to invest in advanced manufacturing, nuclear, and clean fuels projects across the range of investment types.

Liquidity is key for continued improvements in capital availability

Market transparency is key for continued investment and support for these less-established technologies. Both developers for less-established technologies and smaller developers of solar, storage, and wind projects benefit from a wider and more liquid market for capital.

Crux’s debt marketplace aims to bring transparency and liquidity to the energy market and manufacturing industry. Our network of more than 100 lenders provides capital at all stages of the project finance lifecycle, and our leading platform ensures that lenders and developers are able to make the best matches for their financing strategy. Learn more.