Four wind turbines turn under a blue sky dotted with clouds. In the foreground five rows of solar panels can be seen the with oilseed rape crop being grown between them.
What Investors Have to Gain from America’s Backlog of Clean Energy Projects
RMI reviewed 862 project plans to shine a light on shovel-ready, community-centered, and profitable clean energy investment opportunities.
Introducing the CPRG Implementation Grant Project Inventory
This piece is part of the Maintaining Momentum series.
More than 860 clean energy project plans sought implementation funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program last year. Demand for the program far exceeded the program’s resources. Tucked away in a hard-to-find EPA database, RMI has reviewed, sorted, and published these applications to shine a light on the many shovel-ready, community-centered, and profitable clean energy projects. This article offers green banks, institutional and corporate investors, private equity firms, and infrastructure funds a look at several of the applications to help assess the investment opportunity.
A record $265 billion was invested in the US production and deployment of clean energy technologies in 2024. From solar panels and wind turbines to clean hydrogen and batteries, public and private capital enabled the deployment of 49 GW of clean energy last year, representing 93% of the nation’s new energy capacity.
Private lenders co-led the charge, likely influenced by the more predictable and higher return on investment that renewables offer over traditional S&P 500 stocks. However, public support from clean energy tax credits, government and corporate power-purchase agreements, and low-interest financing from state energy financing institutions and community development financial institutions helped make this clean power and technology more accessible to households and communities.
What comes first — public or private investment in realizing clean energy — is a chicken or the egg question. Not in question is the growing importance of quasi-public and private equity investors and lenders in realizing America’s backlog of clean energy projects moving forward.
What investors can find in the Inventory
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program was not designed to finance every worthy clean energy project. However, it catalyzed states, metropolitan statistical areas, and tribes to align on:
- What economic, environmental, and social benefits they want realized in their communities;
- What clean energy infrastructure and technologies to deploy to realize those goals; and
- What policy levers, financial incentives, and other strategies could accelerate clean energy deployment and local manufacturing.
Many proposals include workforce training administered by frontline organizations and vocational schools so that enabling clean technologies, like solar panels, EV supply equipment, and other amenities can be installed and managed by the communities they serve.
The projects found within this new database offer several advantages for private investors looking to expand their clean energy portfolio through a lower-risk project. Many of the applicants requesting CPRG funds to deploy distributed energy resources like solar panels, heat pumps, battery storage, and charging infrastructure in bulk included offtaker and other power-purchase agreements, guaranteeing a government, utility, or community buyer the generated electricity. Project sponsors also created value by identifying public lands for renewable development, regulatory reforms to bring renewables and EV chargers online faster, and prequalified vendors, labor organizations, and other partners who could expedite the project.
Below, RMI highlights three key features that promote these proposed projects’ bankability, along with project examples from the Inventory:
- Public-private partnerships between a government project sponsor, community groups, and clean energy suppliers and developers;
- Potential to aggregate small investments across or within a state to achieve economies of scale; and/or
- Direct or indirect revenue projections, along with established offtake agreements or other cost-sharing commitments between partners.
Note that not all clean energy projects proposed to CPRG are bankable. Essential improvements like wetland restoration and street enhancements to enable safe walking and biking do not generate direct revenue and so still require traditional infrastructure funding.
1. Buy-in and commitments from states, local governments, and other clean energy project sponsors.
All projects proposed in the Inventory have a government sponsor — either a state, metropolitan statistical area, or tribal government. Equity investors have strong incentives to partner with local and state governments to develop clean energy projects because public sector involvement creates market certainty, scale, and stability — all of which reduce risk and improve returns. When governments lead on clean energy through policies, infrastructure investments, and project pipelines, they create a favorable regulatory environment and long-term signals that attract private capital. Public-sector projects often come with land access, permitting advantages, and/or utility partnerships, which lower development costs and complexity.
Additionally, local and state programs can sometimes de-risk private investment through incentives, guarantees, or co-investment structures. State and locally designed efforts can also help aggregate demand across publicly owned sites (e.g., schools, municipal buildings), which creates bankable, scalable portfolios of projects.
For investors interested in social impacts, governments also often prioritize underserved or hard-to-reach markets — such as low-income communities or rural areas — where private investors may not go alone but can engage when backed by public leadership. This collaboration not only boosts impact but also builds pipelines for replicable and investable clean energy models.
In addition, CPRG applicants were required to complete community engagement as part of their proposals to EPA, and many completed thorough outreach to affected stakeholders. Community buy-in can be one of the biggest risks faced by large developers, so private investors seeking projects that have been vetted and approved by community groups can drive these projects forward with confidence.
Ways to use the Inventory
Download the full spreadsheet and search the “Partners or Potential Implementing Agencies” or open full applications to see all letters of support submitted from partner municipalities, utilities, industry groups, and other public and private partners.
The New Mexico Environment Department in coalition with other New Mexico state agencies, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, and the cities of Kingman and Winslow, Arizona, proposed the Zero40 Corridor in their CPRG implementation application. With the number of medium and heavy-duty (MHD) electric trucks projected to grow significantly across Interstate-40 (I-40), the coalition seeks to deploy eight clean transportation fueling centers offering both heavy-duty charging and mobile hydrogen refueling stations coupled with clean electricity generation plus storage. The coalition has the early backing of Greenlane Infrastructure, a joint venture between Daimler Truck North America, NextEra Energy Resources, and BlackRock Alternatives. Greenlane Infrastructure is behind a 280-mile MHD ZET corridor from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. A crucial first step toward supporting clean fueling for long-haul freight across the corridor, the project team estimates it would result in 3,800 direct and indirect jobs and the reduction of over 1.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through 2050. Although still in pre-engineering and contractor procurement, Zero40 represents a market opportunity for the right investor. The charging technology the coalition seeks to deploy is already in development at MHD depots in California, Oregon, and Washington. Many fleets are preventing their growing electric MHD trucks from leaving California, inefficiently moving long-haul goods out to other couriers at the Arizona boarder in part due to the lack of clean transportation fueling centers between Arizona and Oklahoma.
Bridging Science, Communities, and Innovation for North Carolina’s Clean Energy Future
North Carolina’s comprehensive application includes a broad range of support from state and local agencies and advocacy groups. Led by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and with support from North Carolina’s Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, NC Clean Energy Fund, NC Ports, NC Manufacturers Alliance, Duke Energy Carolinas, and its three largest regional councils, Centralina, Central Pines, and Land of Sky, it was the result of two years of extensive cross-agency and multistakeholder planning and coordination. Stepping in to provide the necessary financing would allow investors to capitalize on the momentum and statewide alignment created through this public-private coalition, which is hard to secure in projects of this scale. The priority climate action plan measures that the state elevated to their CPRG implementation application were also those with known funding gaps, which provides investors with a clear signal for the size of loan needed to achieve the project.
2. Aggregation of smaller clean energy projects to derisk larger investments
Investors looking to reap the derisking benefits of a large-scale clean energy portfolio can find a wealth of opportunity within the CPRG applications database. This can be especially useful when looking to finance smaller or distributed assets like residential solar, energy efficiency retrofits, or EV charging stations. Bundling them into a portfolio allows investors to diversify across technologies, geographies, and customer types, which helps mitigate the risk of underperformance from any single asset.
A portfolio approach also unlocks powerful de-risking mechanisms. By aggregating projects, investors can apply standardized underwriting criteria, leverage performance data across the portfolio, and implement centralized monitoring and maintenance strategies. This not only reduces transaction costs but also builds investor confidence through predictability and scale. Additionally, risk-sharing mechanisms — such as credit enhancements, insurance products, or public-private partnerships — can further buffer against losses and attract institutional capital.
Economies of scale are another compelling advantage. Aggregated portfolios can command better pricing from equipment suppliers, access more favorable financing terms, and streamline project development and operations. For example, a fleet electrification initiative that combines multiple municipal or corporate fleets can negotiate bulk vehicle purchases and shared charging infrastructure. Ultimately, by balancing risk through diversification and unlocking scale-driven efficiencies, investors can make small clean energy projects both bankable and impactful.
Ways to use the Inventory
Investors can narrow their search according to geography, sector, and amount of funding requested to target specific technologies, locations, or scale. The quantity of similar project types within the Inventory allows lenders to aggregate projects and build a larger-scale project portfolio, which they can then continue to build out with a call for additional similar projects.
For example: If you’re a municipal banking lender looking for a large stack of local government loans you can find $6 billion worth in the Inventory. If you’re a green bank looking to invest in weatherization, the Midwest region alone offers a collection of 24 projects and over $600 million in requested funds.
A 15-State Coalition Supporting Resilient Local Energy
The Supporting Resilient Local Energy coalition is a partnership between 15 states to purchase and install solar plus storage and other similar zero-emitting electricity generation and storage systems at public buildings. The coalition is led by the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority with state agencies in Arizona, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Program applicants estimated that this project could result in over 200,000 kW of solar and over 120,000 kWh of battery storage across the nation, generating significant opportunity for bulk purchasing and streamlined operations as coalition members share lessons learned from their respective states. Though some states planned to provide assistance in the form of grants, investors could provide capital in the form of revolving loan funds to advance deployment while benefitting from revenue contracts with the state offtakers.
Supporting Advanced Energy Performance Contracting for New York Local Governments
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation would facilitate and manage the energy performance contracts (EPCs) for dozens of municipalities within New York state. By absorbing the major burdens to adopting an EPC (e.g., utility bill analysis, project scoping and procurement, and engineering) and access to prequalified energy service companies (ESCOs) the project would guarantee a massive uptick in retrofits across the state. A statewide initiative can serve as a powerful market signal, creating certainty for both public sector clients and private sector providers. By establishing a consistent pipeline of projects, the program reduces perceived risk and encourages investment from ESCOs and financiers. This predictability fosters a more competitive and capable contractor ecosystem, as firms are more willing to invest in staff, training, and tools when future work is assured.
Beyond market confidence, the initiative also acts as a capacity-building engine. By engaging contractors across a range of building types (including those that are historically under-addressed, such as aging public facilities or structures requiring remediation) the program expands the technical and logistical expertise of local firms. This not only accelerates deployment timelines but also ensures that future projects can be delivered more efficiently and at scale. Crucially, the program innovates on traditional EPC models by moving beyond “low-hanging fruit” energy efficiency measures. It targets deeper retrofits and more complex building profiles, unlocking financing for projects that would otherwise be deemed too risky or unconventional. In doing so, it broadens the applicability of EPCs and demonstrates their viability as a financing mechanism for entities unfamiliar with performance-based contracting.
3. Foreseeable returns and established offtakers for clean energy projects.
Many of the CPRG projects center on growing commercial-grade clean energy sector opportunities, which are inherently “yield-ready” and do not involve any tech innovation. Similarly, any projects that improve building, vehicle, or industry efficiency will inevitably create operational savings, improving project payback. Combining these technologies with available tax credits, rebates, or incentives further shortens the payback period and enhances the projects’ return on investment, making them even more attractive to private financiers. If they reside in one of the 40 states with Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) programs, building efficiency projects specifically can be financed as deferred maintenance upgrades with no money down and repaid long-term as a benefit assessment on the property tax bill.
Partnering with government-supported clean energy projects can also significantly reduce offtaker risk, offering investors a more stable and predictable revenue stream. Public sector entities — such as municipalities, school districts, and transit agencies — often have strong credit ratings and long-term operational mandates, making them reliable counterparties for clean energy investments. When these entities commit to power purchase agreements, energy service contracts, or fleet electrification initiatives, as seen in a number of CPRG applications, they provide a level of financial certainty that is difficult to match in purely commercial markets. This stability not only enhances the bankability of aggregated portfolios but also attracts lower-cost capital, enabling broader deployment of clean energy solutions.
Although the likelihood a project will generate revenue and at what scale is not a filter in the Inventory, investors can apply their specific energy sector and market understanding to assess their potential. As mentioned above, projects that create operational savings through energy efficiency upgrades and projects that generate power to sell renewable energy are likely to create stable and predictable revenue and are easy to find using the “measure type” column.
City of Paso Robles Regional Renewable Energy Park
In partnership with 13 other California municipalities, the City of Paso Robles’ proposed Regional Renewable Energy Park resembles many CPRG implementation plans. The cities seek to scale existing efforts and lure new clean energy developers to create needed manufacturing jobs in a rural community. To buoy the project, Paso Robles will look to strategically develop its existing 133 acres along California State Route 46, which connects the Central Valley with the Central Coast. This single road moves well over $8 billion in trade annually.
Located within the state’s agricultural epicenter, the regional facility would repurpose farm waste methane from across Central California, producing biogas for California’s growing fleet of clean medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The Regional Renewable Energy Park, because of its location, is ideally located near significant potential offtakers, including large wineries and the municipal airport, and would support the future co-location of a new Regional Transit Authority terminal. The project has received support from the California Air Resources Board, the Air Pollution Control District of San Luis Obispo County, and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to serve as a proof of concept for waste decarbonization and replication across the state. With the land, workforce, raw materials, and customers in place, enabling the implementation is primarily a matter of securing up-front capital.
Expanding Capacity at Alaska Energy Authority’s Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Plant
The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA), the state-backed energy investment authority, is seeking $348 million to double the electricity generation capacity at Bradley Lake Hydro. The project would reduce Juneau’s and its coastal communities’ demand for natural gas by 1.5 billion cubic feet, 7.5 percent of which would be unmet demand in 2030. All six Railbelt utility cooperatives committed to backing a revolving fund to cover construction, but AEA is still seeking public and private investment to support the initial phases required to secure the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license. The project is entirely on state-owned land and has the support of Alaska’s governor and guaranteed demand and offtakers.
A rare window for investors
As the clean energy landscape evolves, the CPRG Implementation Grant Project Inventory offers investors a rare window into a curated pipeline of initiatives that are not only visionary but also commercially viable. These projects — many of which feature defined revenue streams, public-private partnerships, and committed offtakers — represent a new frontier for scalable, impact-driven investment. While not every proposal is shovel-ready or revenue-generating today, the groundwork laid through rigorous planning, stakeholder engagement, and government sponsorship has significantly de-risked many in the pipeline. For investors seeking both climate impact and financial return, this inventory is more than a list — it’s a launchpad for building resilient, diversified portfolios that can accelerate the energy transition while delivering long-term value.