Can Aspen Power’s $66m tax equity deal unlock a new wave of regional solar expansion in 2025?

Aspen Power, a distributed generation platform accelerating the clean energy transition in the United States, has closed a new tax equity facility with Monarch Private Capital to fund solar energy projects across New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. The investment marks a strategic boost to Aspen Power’s 2025 portfolio and underscores deepening investor confidence in distributed solar infrastructure as a scalable pathway toward decarbonization.

The financing agreement brings Aspen Power’s total tax equity commitments to $66 million for 2025 to date. That figure represents a material increase from prior years and reflects an institutional appetite for mid-sized solar projects with predictable returns supported by Investment Tax Credit (ITC) incentives and state-level climate policies.

How does this tax equity deal with Monarch Private Capital strengthen Aspen Power’s regional project execution?

According to Aspen Power’s Chief Financial Officer Bill DeLong, the new tax equity facility expands the firm’s ability to “execute on [its] pipeline and expand access to distributed generation across multiple states.” DeLong noted that such partnerships are instrumental in delivering on the company’s dual mission of accelerating and democratizing decarbonization, particularly in markets with strong grid reliability needs and policy support.

The deal will fund solar portfolios across three states that are strategically important to Aspen Power’s long-term development thesis. In New York, community solar remains a major growth lever, buoyed by the state’s NY-Sun program and aggressive clean energy mandates targeting 70% renewable electricity by 2030. In Illinois, recent expansions to the state’s Adjustable Block Program (ABP) have opened up new pathways for distributed projects. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is witnessing growing municipal and commercial interest in behind-the-meter solar as electric rates and climate risk both rise.

Monarch Private Capital, a leading impact investment manager, is backing Aspen’s distributed generation strategy as part of its broader “all-of-the-above” energy investment framework. Speaking on the transaction, Monarch Managing Director for Energy Bryan Didier said the firm’s partnership with Aspen Power supports clean energy goals while generating long-term community value and tax-advantaged returns.

Didier added that Aspen’s regional solar portfolios align well with Monarch’s investment thesis of pairing predictable tax credit streams with impactful ESG outcomes—an increasingly common strategy among institutional investors targeting the Inflation Reduction Act’s multi-year credit window.

Why is tax equity still critical for distributed solar developers post-IRA?

Although the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has unlocked significant financial incentives for clean energy deployment, particularly through enhanced ITCs and production tax credits (PTCs), the structure of these credits still requires third-party tax equity investors for monetization—especially for privately held developers like Aspen Power.

For distributed generation developers, tax equity financing functions as a foundational layer in the capital stack, helping to reduce upfront equity requirements while enhancing project-level returns. Tax equity investors typically receive a combination of federal tax benefits, accelerated depreciation, and cash distributions—often frontloaded in the first few years of a project’s life.

The IRA introduced mechanisms such as transferability and direct pay, which are expected to reduce reliance on traditional tax equity over time. However, in practice, most mid-scale solar developers still require large institutional investors like Monarch Private Capital to bridge the gap between project completion and tax credit realization. Market data indicates that while transferability is growing, most clean energy tax credit transfers in 2024 and early 2025 have been concentrated among top-tier developers and tax-optimized buyers, leaving smaller players reliant on conventional equity partnerships.

Aspen Power’s ability to secure $66 million in tax equity within the first eight months of 2025 suggests that its project risk profile, financial structuring capabilities, and interconnection execution are meeting institutional thresholds—an important signal in a market where interconnection delays and inflationary pressures have created uncertainty.

What does this financing round tell us about Aspen Power’s position in the U.S. distributed energy landscape?

Aspen Power is rapidly emerging as a multi-state distributed energy operator with the scale, financing access, and policy fluency needed to deliver regionally tailored clean energy solutions. The company reports having developed or acquired over 600 renewable energy assets across 26 U.S. states, with a focus on distributed solar and energy storage that can be deployed closer to load centers.

Its business model combines greenfield development, strategic acquisitions, and long-term project ownership. By emphasizing community partnerships and non-utility off-take arrangements, Aspen Power positions itself as a solutions provider for municipalities, school districts, healthcare systems, and small-to-medium-sized commercial clients—segments often underserved by traditional utility-scale developers.

The developer’s pipeline for 2025 includes projects in various stages of permitting, EPC contracting, and interconnection, many of which will directly benefit from this latest tax equity injection. Analysts note that Aspen Power’s hybrid strategy—balancing portfolio acquisition with organic development—offers a hedge against policy risk and enables faster capital deployment compared to greenfield-only peers.

Institutional sentiment around Aspen Power is also bolstered by its focus on mid-scale assets that can navigate grid constraints without requiring multi-year transmission upgrades. This flexibility is increasingly important as transmission bottlenecks delay gigawatt-scale utility projects, while distributed projects with 5–20 MW capacity sizes can often connect faster and serve local reliability goals.

How does Monarch Private Capital’s strategy align with rising investor demand for distributed solar?

Monarch Private Capital has been an active investor in U.S. renewable energy projects for over a decade, with a focus on tax credit-generating assets that also deliver tangible social and environmental impact. In addition to renewable energy, Monarch’s portfolio includes affordable housing, historic preservation, and film tax credit investments—areas that benefit from federal and state incentives.

The firm has long maintained a presence in energy tax equity, supporting solar, wind, and hybrid assets across multiple regional markets. Monarch’s investment thesis prioritizes projects that meet environmental sustainability metrics, generate jobs, and offer community co-benefits—criteria that align closely with Aspen Power’s stated mission of “democratizing decarbonization.”

This latest partnership with Aspen Power reflects a broader capital markets trend in which tax equity investors are pivoting toward mid-market distributed generation as a more predictable and socially impactful asset class. Compared to utility-scale assets, distributed solar portfolios can offer shorter development cycles, lower regulatory hurdles, and improved alignment with local decarbonization mandates and resilience planning.

What are the broader market implications of Aspen Power’s tax equity momentum?

The $66 million secured by Aspen Power in 2025 thus far is not only a validation of its project pipeline but also a potential bellwether for how mid-sized solar developers may regain financing momentum post-pandemic and post-rate-hike.

Between late 2022 and 2024, many distributed solar projects struggled to reach financial close due to a combination of inflationary EPC costs, delayed ITC guidance from the IRS, and tax equity market dislocation. Aspen’s back-to-back closes in 2025 indicate a rebound in tax equity liquidity and may encourage similar platforms to pursue multi-state portfolio financings, rather than asset-by-asset closings.

For policymakers and clean energy advocates, Aspen’s progress also reinforces the importance of ensuring that tax credit policy is accessible to developers beyond the top tier. The transition from tax equity to broader credit transferability may take several years to fully mature. In the meantime, Monarch-style partnerships will remain vital in moving capital into the distributed generation sector—especially in states with newer programs and evolving policy frameworks.

What lies ahead for Aspen Power as it executes its 2025 solar strategy?

Looking ahead, Aspen Power is expected to pursue additional equity raises, strategic EPC partnerships, and regional interconnection agreements to accelerate project completion timelines across its current pipeline. With strong financing momentum in hand, the developer will likely shift focus to deployment milestones in New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, where construction activity and community onboarding are key KPIs.

Industry observers anticipate that Aspen may also expand into storage-integrated solar to enhance grid value and respond to time-of-use rate shifts in states like New York and Illinois. The IRA’s inclusion of standalone storage ITCs presents a pathway for Aspen to co-locate battery storage on existing and future solar sites—further enhancing its project economics and resilience value.

Aspen Power’s focus on working directly with municipalities, schools, and community institutions also positions it to benefit from expanding federal funding under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) and Department of Energy loan programs—assuming it can demonstrate shovel-readiness and community impact.

While the exact capacity represented by the $66 million in financing has not been disclosed, typical project structures suggest Aspen could be advancing over 100 MWdc of solar capacity through this partnership alone, depending on portfolio configurations and regional incentives.