10 Questions to Ask Before Funding a Solar + Storage Project

The number that decides a solar + storage loan is the one number nobody checks: where the battery's savings actually come from.

It reaches the credit desk as one blended figure, with no split by source, no downside case and no way to verify it. These ten questions, grouped into five themes and each paired with the document to ask for, give credit teams underwriting solar + storage a way to test that figure before they fund.

Where the money comes from

• Question 1: Where exactly does the battery earn its money? Tariff shifting, diesel replacement or demand charges? They behave nothing alike, so the blend hides the truth. Ask for: the monthly savings split, by source.
• Question 2: If the savings lean on diesel, where's the proof? Fuel invoices or DG logbooks, not a verbal estimate and not a suspiciously round number. Ask for: fuel invoices and DG logbooks.

What the model assumed

• Question 3: What load profile was assumed, and where did it come from? Monthly bills alone don't show the shape of the day, and the load curve decides what either lever can earn. Ask for: the source of the load curve.
• Question 4: Does the cashflow include capacity degradation? Or are the savings held flat for ten years? A battery fades, and the numbers should fade with it. Check: year-by-year figures, not a flat line.

The engineering behind the number

• Question 5: Is augmentation or replacement costed, and when? A mid-life capacity top-up can quietly move the entire payback. Find the exact year it lands. Check: the year it hits the cashflow.
• Question 6: What round-trip efficiency and auxiliary load were used? And do they match the architecture actually being built on site, or a friendlier one on paper? Check: RTE and auxiliary load against the real design.

Sizing and price

• Question 7: Is the battery sized for the savings, or for a mandate? Both are valid. But a battery sized to a state rule and one sized to earn are two different business cases. Ask: what the sizing is optimising for.
• Question 8: Is the cost per kW and per kWh in line with today? Storage pricing moves fast. Last year's benchmark is not this year's number. Check: ₹/kW and ₹/kWh against today's prices.

Risk and repayment

• Question 9: Does payback land inside the loan tenor? In the downside case too, not just the expected one. Ask to see the conservative case sitting right beside it. Ask for: payback, conservative and expected.
• Question 10: Who actually carries the performance risk? The OEM warranty, the EPC guarantee, or the borrower? Follow it all the way down the chain. Ask: where the risk really sits.

And one question underlies all ten: ask for one downside case. Any proposal that can't show one hasn't been stress-tested. Ingro Sims was built to produce exactly this view, a savings split by source with expected and downside cases, from the borrower's own bills and the EPC's proposal.