How tech inertia is slowing down renewable energy project finance

Though financing energy projects is far from a novel venture, renewable energy faces different challenges than its fossil fuel counterparts. These projects are often smaller and more geographically distributed, but each one comes with the same hefty stack of paperwork — and the administrative burden that’s required to secure financing grows with every new project. 

This systemic inefficiency manifests itself in higher costs of capital, clunky manual processes, and increased risk to new businesses. Digital tools can help alleviate these difficulties, as they streamline the deal-making process and make it easier to manage portfolios, compliance, and risk throughout a project’s lifecycle. 

But lenders and borrowers often find themselves entrenched in the technologies they’ve always used. They’re stuck in tech inertia, continuing to rely on outdated, fragmented systems that prevent them from deploying capital as quickly as necessary. 

Understanding tech inertia in renewable energy project finance

Though tech inertia can look many different ways, one thing is clear: The persistent reliance on old technologies, siloed data, and manual workflows is hindering collective innovation in the renewable energy project finance landscape. 

And, despite the availability of digital tools aimed at the space, many stakeholders remain resistant to changing their approach — even when they recognize the value of “leveling up” their technology. Banyan Infrastructure’s 2025 Project Finance Software Industry Report found that while two-thirds of the borrowers and lenders surveyed viewed a sophisticated tech stack as key to achieving their 2025 goals, only 38% said they planned to invest more money into upgrading their technology during the same timeframe. 

This hesitation stalls capital mobilization, as it delays critical decision-making, impedes visibility, and promotes inefficient processes. Digital transformation tends to be seen as a reactive measure instead of a proactive strategy — a painkiller rather than injury prevention. As a result, organizations often wait to upgrade their tech stacks until inefficiencies become too large to overcome. However, “good enough” solutions — where data is gathered piecemeal, and project financiers are tasked with manual data entry — are only good enough for so long; inevitably, concerns like missed payments and cashflow issues fall through the cracks. Adopting new technologies strategically is a more effective approach — and one that can head off crises before they arise. 

The impacts of tech inertia

The prevalence of outdated and siloed systems in renewable energy financing deeply impacts the field. Time-intensive manual processes lead to lengthy decision-making that forces stakeholders to spend ample amounts of time addressing errors and duplicative tasks. Beyond inflating an organization’s operational costs, this disorganization diverts valuable resources away from innovation and industry growth. In a renewable energy context, these delays remain a substantial barrier to scaling energy solutions. 

Avoiding purpose-built digital tools effectively means avoiding new opportunities to optimize processes and mitigate risk. Projects can also get bottlenecked during the origination and underwriting stages — meaning that financing gets delayed. This delayed financing means delayed capital deployment. Though this is a problem at any point, the lag is particularly impactful as initiatives like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) try to mobilize private capital faster than ever. 

How purpose-built project finance software can help

Outdated systems are at the heart of tech inertia. Purpose-built, modernized systems can be the solution. 

Platforms like Banyan Infrastructure’s project finance software can help lessen or eliminate pain points in the capital deployment process. By streamlining workflows and improving data accessibility and visibility, technology can help automate the deal lifecycle and make it easier to guide deal origination and compliance management. It’s then easier for stakeholders to ensure they allocate their time and money toward strategic priorities — not paperwork.

Digital platforms can quickly simplify and automate the complex web of administrative tasks that go into financing renewable energy projects. By automating the underwriting process, staff members don’t need to spend valuable time and energy centralizing documentation and filling in the same forms time and time again. That freed-up time speeds up approvals and enables developers to secure funding quickly. 

Plus, these types of systems can serve as a single source of truth that integrates disparate or siloed data into a key hub. This improves transparency, in turn, helps eliminate redundancies in the data, and facilitates further collaboration between various stakeholders or departments.

Advanced software can also be a valuable tool to enhance portfolio management. For investors and lenders who manage multiple renewable energy projects, an efficient system is key. Purpose-built systems can offer real-time tracking of project performance, financial health, and compliance requirements. These features not only simplify reporting but help provide data-driven insights that can inform decision-making. 

Additionally, renewable energy projects have some level of inherent risk due to fluctuations in resource availability and evolving regulatory requirements. Robust risk management frameworks are critical. Digital tools ease the risk assessment and mitigation process by measuring predictive analytics and modeling different scenarios. That way, solutions can be suggested and implemented before challenges arrive. 

Overcoming the fear

Many organizations around the project finance space recognize the need to modernize their tech stacks — but tech inertia is impeding their transition to new technologies and slowing capital mobilization. More broadly, the renewable energy financing industry is in need of a paradigm shift in how it approaches digital transformation and data management. 

Particularly as capital availability increases, agile and scalable tech solutions must replace outdated systems to meet the sector’s evolving needs. 

Adopting digital tools doesn’t always mean starting from scratch and completely overhauling your system — even incremental steps can make a significant difference. This is true across the board, but digital solutions that are built specifically to address the unique demands of renewable energy finance — like Banyan Infrastructure — are particularly valuable. 

While adjusting to a new system can take time, the long-term benefits are clear: time savings, standardization, and increased collaboration and clarity. There’s no one-size-fits-all tech stack, as every organization has unique approaches, budget considerations, and growth strategies. A small startup has different needs than a large corporation, as do lenders and borrowers. 

Key considerations in building a digital tech stack for renewable energy project finance

When your organization has decided to upgrade its tech stack, determining where to start is often overwhelming. It can be helpful to categorize the digital tools you’re considering into “must-haves” versus tools that are “nice-to-have” but not vital to conducting your operations. 

For renewable energy projects finance, tools that drive efficiency are must-haves. These include data integration systems, document automation, and project tracking tools. On the other hand, some advanced solutions that could be useful — but aren’t critical for every organization — could be loan servicing software or comprehensive renewable energy asset management systems. 

Additionally, these tools can also be grouped by concept. Some categories could include tools that help with origination or portfolio management (e.g. a CRM), compliance management, reporting, or fund management. 

Different organizations, of course, have different needs depending on their size, focus, and business model. An effective tech stack should be adaptable and able to integrate with any organization’s operations and the other services they’re already using. 

Purpose-built tools that are designed specifically for renewable energy finance can deliver functionality from the get-go that directly aligns with industry best practices and helps organizations achieve quick wins, spurring on the appeal of modernization. They also avoid the time investment that customizable tools like Salesforce require to adapt the platform to industry-specific needs. 

After you’ve determined your organization’s “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves,” it’s time to step back, look at your current tech stack, and assess what is and isn’t working. It can be helpful to consider questions like:

• What key functions or processes are still manual or siloed?
• Do you have single points of failure in your operations (i.e. one person who has ownership over portfolio data)?
• Who needs to see what data? How easy is it for them to access that data?
• What data inputs do you need to build your compliance tracking and/or reports? Where does that data live? 

Then, it’s easier to see what gaps can be addressed through digital transformation. 

Moving forward, modernized

Successful digital transformation goes beyond integrating new technologies — it requires a cultural shift that prioritizes collaboration, continuous improvement, and adaptability. 

To avoid overwhelming staff and reinforcing tech inertia, it’s key to achieve buy-in from those who will be using the new technologies. It’s helpful to highlight that software can actually empower your team by amplifying their own abilities and enabling them to focus on strategy instead of tasks that can be automated. 

As confidence in the new technology grows, the scope can expand. This allows the tech stack to evolve alongside organizational needs.

Although tech inertia remains a formidable challenge to scaling renewable energy finance, it is possible to move beyond it. Embracing digital transformation will help “level up” the project finance industry’s approach to deal management and accelerate capital deployment. 

For organizations ready to embark on their digital transformation journey, contact Banyan Infrastructure today to book a demo and learn more about our purpose-built project finance software.

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