Two More Questions Lenders Should Ask Before Funding Solar + Storage
Lender conversations added two questions to our pre-funding checklist: whether the file assumes a power-heavy or energy-heavy battery, and what performance data the lender will see after disbursal.
On 22 September, Ingro shared 10 questions to ask before funding a solar + storage project. Two weeks of conversations with lenders added two more. Both deal with things a loan file often leaves vague: how the battery is designed, and what the lender can see once the money is out.
Question 11: Which battery design does the file assume, power-heavy or energy-heavy?
The same 1 MWh battery can be 500 kW for 2 hours or 250 kW for 4 hours. Two designs of the same size can produce very different savings, so a battery's capacity in MWh alone does not tell a lender what it will earn.
Ask for: kW and hours, not just the size.
Question 12: After disbursal, what performance data will you see, and is access a condition of the loan?
Monthly generation and battery data is the earliest sign that savings, and therefore repayments, are on track. That data is only useful if the lender can actually get it, so access should be written into the loan rather than granted as a favour.
Ask for: a data-sharing clause in the loan.
Why these two matter
Same 1 MWh, very different savings: design choices change the cashflow the loan depends on. And the earliest sign a loan is on track is the data a lender can see after it's paid out. Together with the original ten, these questions help credit teams underwrite the battery on evidence rather than on the headline size in the proposal.
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