You already know how to assess a solar site. Roof orientation, shading, structural load, system sizing – that’s your territory. What this article covers is the specific funding lens UrbanVolt applies to a project, and where it adds criteria that a typical site assessment wouldn’t cover. Know these upfront, and you’ll spend your survey resource on sites that convert.
(For background on how UrbanVolt’s EPC partnership model works, start with How Solar EPCs Unlock Funded Pipeline with a PPA.)
The funding criteria that sit outside a standard site survey
The technical side of a site assessment and the funding side mostly overlap, but not completely. The gaps are where deals tend to stall.
The two that most commonly need attention are credit and tenure, because they live outside a standard site survey.
UrbanVolt requires a minimum Experian credit rating of 75 from the contracting entity. If the occupier doesn’t meet it, a parent company contracting instead resolves it more often than you’d expect, so it’s worth checking before anything else moves. A quick Experian lookup at the start keeps the rest of the process clean, and UrbanVolt can help with this.
Tenure matters for the same reason. UrbanVolt owns the asset for the life of the contract, so the client needs to own the building or hold a lease with sufficient runway – at least ten years as a working baseline. Flag it early and it’s rarely an obstacle.
What the consumption profile needs to look like
The funding model is built around daytime self-consumption. UrbanVolt needs to see at least 250,000 kWh of daytime electricity use per annum. The strongest sites are those with consistent, high daytime loads – manufacturers, food processing, logistics, education – where the solar output maps closely onto when the building is actually consuming. We would always recommend modelling against 12 months of half-hourly data.
A five-day working week is the minimum operating pattern. Sites with strong, consistent daytime activity across the week are where the model performs best.
The roof criteria worth flagging specifically
You’ll assess the roof in your own way. Two things UrbanVolt focuses on that don’t always feature in a standard survey:
Remaining roof life relative to the contract term. UrbanVolt contracts run up to 25 years, so a roof that needs work within that window is worth discussing early. Identifying it upfront means it can be planned around rather than becoming a late-stage complication.
Minimum system size is 50 kWp. For sites that come in below that individually, UrbanVolt will assess a group of smaller sites collectively, which often brings projects to the table that would otherwise be left on the bench.
Getting to a commercial conversation fast
This is where the Partner Portal earns its place. Input your costs and system design information and you have an indicative PPA rate in the same conversation where the client first expressed interest. No emails, no waiting, no internal referral needed.
From there, all UrbanVolt needs to produce a full proposal in your branding is the latest electricity bill, your solar illustration, and 12 months of half-hourly data. Turnaround is five business days. Getting the half-hourly data requested from the client’s supplier early is the single step most worth flagging upfront – it’s the one thing that consistently determines how quickly the process moves.
In short
Sites with confident daytime consumption above 250,000 kWh, a financially sound occupier with stable tenure, and viable roof space on a structure that will last the contract term are the ones that move quickly through funding. Adding a credit check and a tenure conversation to your initial qualification process is the most practical step you can take to keep your funded pipeline clean and converting.
Interested in partnering with UrbanVolt? Take a look at our partner page, or contact us to talk through the process.