Preparing an energy project for investment review

What preparation actually is

Preparation is a structured description: what exists, what can be shared on request, and what is still unknown. It is not a marketing pack, and it is not a claim that the project is ready for capital.

Owners who skip this step tend to open with a return figure and then cannot answer the first five questions. That burns the first conversations.

Information investors can actually use

They need the technology, location at a useful level, stage, who controls the site, the commercial model, the capital asked for, and a costing or a clear statement that costs are not yet established.

Sensitive detail can stay behind a request. Hiding the existence of a gap is different from holding the document until someone is worth sending it to.

Technical maturity

An idea, a feasibility study, a costed design and a construction-ready pack are different objects. Mixing them into one generic raise is how reviews stall.

Say where you are. If design is an envelope, call it an envelope. If a grid offer is in progress, say in progress — not “connection secured”.

Costings and the capital requirement

A capital requirement is the gap you are asking someone else to fill, against a delivery estimate or a development budget. It is not a round number chosen for a teaser.

If you can fund the next stage yourself, say so. External investment, debt and operator-funded models are different asks; preparation should not pretend they are interchangeable.

Site and structure

Site control — freehold, lease, option, landlord consent — has to be stated. So does the intended ownership of the asset, even if that is “not yet decided”.

A behind-the-meter array serving a factory is a different commercial object from a standalone BESS or a public charging hub. Structure is part of diligence, not a later footnote.

Documents and gaps

Typical items: site evidence, designs or surveys, grid correspondence, quotes, corporate structure, and any contracts that already exist. The list is shorter than people fear. The discipline is labelling what is missing.

• ▢Site control stated, with term if it is a lease or option
• ▢Technical stage labelled honestly
• ▢Costing dated, scoped, or marked as not yet established
• ▢Capital ask matched to the gap
• ▢Grid, planning and commercial unknowns listed as unknowns
• ▢Documents available on request, not dumped on everyone

What an investment review is

A review is a counterparty looking at labelled facts to decide whether to spend more time. It is not an offer, not advice, and not a ranking by WattFund.

WattFund helps owners present status consistently and reach relevant capital when that is the useful next step. It does not advise, recommend, lend or hold client money.