Bridge financing supports rapid construction at solar and wind projects to meet federal tax-credit requirements
United States, August 15, 2025
Crayhill Capital has introduced a Tax Equity Bridge Lending programme offering facilities from $50 million to $500 million to help U.S. renewable developers meet tightened federal tax-credit qualification rules. The product pairs short-term bridge loans against anticipated tax-equity commitments with pre-construction and construction financing, preferred-equity step-up support, and equipment procurement assistance. Designed to accelerate meaningful construction activity while permanent tax-equity and construction financing are finalized, the programme aims to bridge timing gaps caused by stricter documentation and construction tests and to help developers secure long-lead components and close construction financing more quickly.
A new Tax Equity Bridge Lending (TEBL) programme has been introduced to help solar, wind and battery developers in the United States meet tightening federal tax-credit deadlines. The programme combines short-term tax-equity bridge loans with development financing and is structured to let projects start substantial construction work immediately while they complete the steps needed to secure long-term construction finance and monetise tax credits.
Federal rules require qualifying projects to either begin construction by 4 July 2026 or be placed in service by 31 December 2027 to claim federal investment tax credits (ITC) or production tax credits (PTC). Regulators have signalled that later guidance may tighten the test for having “begun construction,” pressing developers to show a substantial portion of work completed rather than relying on early, preliminary steps. Combined with rising power demand driven by new technologies, developers face an unusually tight schedule to move projects from planning to construction.
The programme offers facilities sized from $50 million to $500 million. It provides:
By layering pre-construction and construction capital with bridge-style support backed by expected tax-equity, the programme aims to give developers a clear path to close construction financing once permitting, interconnection and tax-equity syndication are complete. The structure is designed to reduce the risk that projects miss the federal-start or in-service deadlines because of funding gaps or procurement delays.
The manager behind the programme has expanded its pre-construction financing work and reports having deployed more than $4 billion across over 50 transactions since 2015. Its latest flagship fund closed at roughly $1.31 billion, above the original target, and included approximately $162 million in committed co-investment capacity. The firm is described as a partner-owned manager focused on asset-based finance within the renewable energy sector and operates with an overall asset footprint reported near $3 billion.
Prior partnerships illustrate how this type of capital has been used in practice. A past financing arrangement provided a developer with $275 million in flexible capital to advance projects into construction and scale a solar-plus-storage platform. That developer had reported a large project pipeline measured in gigawatts of solar and co-located storage capacity.
The move to offer larger bridge facilities reflects two forces: regulatory timing pressure created by the new tax-credit start and in-service dates, and fast-growing electricity demand linked to greater adoption of data centers, AI-related loads and electrification. Developers should consider timing risks around permitting, interconnection and equipment delivery, as well as execution risk in securing final tax-equity investors before construction completion.
Facilities under the new programme are intended primarily for pre-construction and construction phases of utility-scale and large distributed solar, wind and battery projects. The design aims to be a single-source financing solution where a developer can access a range of capital types from one partner, simplifying coordination between early-stage development and construction close.
Firm leadership has highlighted synthetic risk-transfer topics and evolving bank and non-bank roles in asset finance in recent discussions. Senior professionals also note experience in asset-based finance and the strategic role of flexible bridge capital when regulatory deadlines and market demand create compressed timelines for project delivery.
A: TEBL is short-term financing that lets renewable energy projects access capital now based on expected future tax-equity commitments. It combines development funding with a bridge to construction finance and tax-equity monetization.
A: The loans target solar, wind and battery projects in pre-construction or early construction stages that expect to qualify for federal ITC or PTC under the 2026–2027 deadline rules.
A: Facilities are sized from $50 million up to $500 million, suitable for utility-scale or large distributed projects.
A: To claim federal tax credits under current rules, projects must either begin construction by 4 July 2026 or be placed in service by 31 December 2027. Future guidance may raise the bar by requiring demonstrable substantial construction progress.
A: The programme includes help with equipment procurement and sequencing to reduce supply-chain delays, and offers layered capital types including preferred equity step-up features to bridge returns until tax credits are monetized.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Facility size | $50m–$500m |
| Uses | Pre-construction capital, construction equity, preferred equity step-up, equipment procurement support |
| Collateral basis | Advance financing secured against future tax-equity commitments |
| Target projects | Solar, wind and battery projects aiming to meet federal ITC/PTC deadlines |
| Key regulatory deadlines | Begin construction by 4 July 2026 or placed in service by 31 December 2027 |
| Manager track record | More than $4 billion deployed across 50+ transactions since 2015; recent fund close ~ $1.31bn |
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