• Accelerated solicitations force developers to balance costly readiness against uncertain returns
• Battery storage offers new Illinois development and interconnection opportunities
• Goldman Sachs favors execution, quality pipelines, financeability and diversification in investment evaluation

Accelerated solicitations are forcing distributed-generation developers—particularly in Illinois—to weigh costly project readiness against uncertain returns amid tightening interconnection constraints, according to a panel of industry leaders at NPM’s 2026 DG & Data Center Development Forum on October 22.

The panel included Steven Kiesling, Head of DG Development, Cypress Creek Energy, Tim Polz, Chief Development Officer, SunVest, Blaise Cote, Chief Strategy Officer, Solar Landscape, Teresa Mattamourous, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs, Christine Guhl-Sadovy, Commissioner, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), and Allan Hug, Co-founder and CGO, KAOH Media, who moderated the panel.

SunVest secured about 65 MW in the Illinois Shines allocation last April, Polz said, while highlighting significant post-award cost pressures in the state.

By the time projects enter the program, they are largely de-risked, therefore costs such as leases or permitting contingencies are largely accounted for at the time projects are submitted into the program, Polz explained. Post-award project economics are increasingly driven by interconnection challenges as utility service areas become more saturated.

“Good, cheap interconnection sites are getting harder and harder to come by. Though we’re fortunate that project economics can support significant interconnection costs, the build out of those interconnection facilities that are mid, far removed from that actual project site present the challenge for us,” Polz said.

It’s often post-interconnection agreement and deposit, where there are lengthy real estate reviews that occur on the utility side, ultimately leaving the developer responsible for obtaining any offsite easements required to build out interconnection facilities, Polz said.

“That often happens post award and can be a significant cost driver as well as potential risk to the viability of your projects as a whole,” Polz said.

In addition to the real estate component, Polz said SunVest had a few instances with utilities that come back late in a project life cycle, as late as mechanical completion, to inform them of a mistake made in the interconnection process. This has resulted in a large portion of the scope and costs increasing, and by then, the developer has already committed to the project, leaving little choice but to absorb the increase in interconnection costs.

In some cases, it’s been two-to-three times what the original interconnection estimate was in the interconnection agreement, according to Polz.

Looking at more opportunities and where they lie in the Illinois Shines program, Polz pointed to ComEd where there continues to be opportunities for community solar. Ameren Illinois is currently going through a period of challenges from an interconnection standpoint which has essentially slowed the study process to a trickle, Polz said.

“ComEd continues to process interconnection applications—it’s more of a matter of where you can find viable interconnection and willing host community for community solar in Illinois right now,” Polz said.

Polz highlighted the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA), approved in early 2026, which is creating new opportunities for distributed scale front-of-the-meter battery storage development in Illinois.

SunVest is putting a large portion of their development resources in that direction, Polz said.

“I think that’s going to be a great opportunity for us for years to come,” Polz said. “I think the advantage in addition to the incentives that are available for battery storage in that program is that those projects typically occupy a different geography—different locations within utility grid and distribution system.”

Battery storage can be a more viable land-use option at urban and suburban sites unsuitable for community solar, while also offering more interconnection opportunities within ComEd’s distribution system.

For Solar Landscape, who’s building a large portfolio in Illinois, Cote said the company looks for scale and big programmatic relationships with commercial real estate asset owners. Its partnership with Public Storage reflects that strategy, with plans for 60 rooftop community solar projects in Illinois. Cote said Solar Landscape has signed multiyear contracts with 170 commercial real estate companies.

“We look for big markets and we get scale…we prefer to actually be in a fewer number of states and go big in those markets,” Cote said.

New market expansion

“This is something that we’ve wrestled with over the years,” Kiesling of Cypress Creek said.

The company previously took a more policy-forward approach, entering markets while legislation was still proposed or pending and before programs were fully implemented, according to Kiesling.

“That’s worked out well in some cases,” Kiesling said, pointing to Illinois where Cypress Creek was early to and continues to pay dividends, but it hasn’t worked out so well in cases like California where the implementation came up short the company was left with projects that didn’t have a lot of great options.

“We’ve became more conservative over time,” Kiesling said. “We definitely want the legislation to be there ideally, from Cypress Creek’s perspective, before we start investing.”

Cypress Creek first assesses regulatory implementation to ensure a program aligns with legislative intent. The company then looks for attractive margins and viable pathways for development, land acquisition and interconnection, Kiesling said.

How do developers weigh the cost of staying ready for short-notice solicitations?

“It’s always the question of risk and reward,” Kiesling said.

“On the risk side, its everything that we put into a project,” Kiesling said, such as permitting, staff and efforts within communities.

“If you zoom out a little bit, you’re not going to just do that for one project. Most developers can’t just dip our toe in the water because of the overhead and fixed cost of just being in the market, understanding and engaging it. So, we’re going to have a portfolio that we’re running with, so for Cypress Creek, it’s really a seven-figure decision,” Kiesling said. “Do we enter this market and what do we perceive the reward at.”

That equation varies market-by-market, Kiesling explained.

In terms of what Cypress Creek is looking for on the rewards side, Kiesling said they look at how compelling the reward is and how wide the window is, in other words, is it a multi-year program because projects don’t always land where they want them in time.

Evaluation

According to Mattamourous, the first is a developer’s track record and if it developed what they thought they would in terms of megawatts deployed per year.

Developers often bring fewer megawatts online than projected, Mattamourous said. Goldman Sachs also assesses whether projects were delivered on time and on budget and whether realized returns matched underwriting expectations.

The second criterion is operating performance. Because many platforms and assets are relatively new, Goldman Sachs looks for credible remediation plans when performance falls below P50 expectations, Mattamourous said.

The third is pipeline quality.

“We like the developers that lead with interconnection positions and really understand where they should be on the grid and have a really good grasp on the upgrade cost that’s going to be needed to bring these projects online,” Mattamourous said.

The fourth criterion is cash-flow financeability. Mattamourous cited recent bankruptcies and noted that debt markets are less liquid for DG assets than for utility-scale projects.

The final point when thinking about platform value is diversification.

“We like to see not only geographical diversification because there’s different programs, but also off taking type. A mix of community solar with PPA with some front-of-the-meter—it’s important for us,” Mattamourous said. “We don’t want to be too dependent on a specific program or a specific allocation. So, when you put all these pieces together you really price the platform that you’re willing to pay.”

Mattamourous described the current DG sector as a buyer’s market, driven less by individual states or programs despite established opportunities in Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

“We see a lot of opportunity for consolidation,” Mattamourous said. “From our perspective, if you look at the DG market, it’s highly fragmented. There’s a handful of players with over a gigawatt of operating assets and even those they have 3-4% market share, there’s a lot of 200-300 MW players that are spending USD 20, 30, 40m of SGNA and there’s a real need to consolidate.”

That fragmentation creates opportunities to deploy capital into an established platform and expand through acquisitions, Mattamourous said. Operating portfolios are also trading at attractive prices.