Established in 2004, Birch Tree Capital is an independent advisory firm dedicated to assisting investors and other entities in financing clean electric power generation projects. Led by its founder and principal, John Harper, the firm has decades of experience in structuring investments in renewable and other power projects. Our focus is enabling project-oriented financing for specific clean power generation investments.

Birch Tree Capital has helped clients in financing issues through the full project development cycle from the pre-development phases through to construction of the plant. Our project clients circle the investment negotiation table, including institutional equity investors, strategic equity investors, developers, utilities, cooperatives, and other private entities, to investment banks and commercial lenders, to public sector entities such as municipalities, state-level energy offices, and clean energy funds. We specialize in relationship investing, where the interests of the developer, investors, and lenders are aligned and successfully completed transactions lead to additional investment opportunities and shared savings in future transaction costs and effort. Through our model, success is measured not just in terms of the immediate deal, but in the parties choosing to come together again to close additional transactions.

Birch Tree Capital tailors its services to meet the needs of its diverse clients. We help investors find suitable investment opportunities that meet their tax and investment return requirements. We help developers overcome the special and distinct hurdles faced in financing projects moving from early stage development into construction, smaller or community-scale projects, and projects employing new and improved technologies. Birch Tree Capital understands the nexus between the public and private sectors in facilitating clean power project development. We help clients identify and tap Federal and state financing incentives and assistance supporting clean energy project development, including investment and production tax incentives, guaranteed loan and grant programs. We help towns and communities realize their desires for local clean power production.

We provide financing market reviews to help developers and clean energy funds assess the potential for attracting financing in support of new clean power generation projects. Other investment-related services include crafting sector investment plans and project financing structures, identifying specific investment opportunities, identifying interested investors, preparing applications for U.S. Treasury allocations of clean renewable energy bond (CREB) and tax credit authority, coordinating due diligence.

Available services include:

• Crafting client-centered strategic investment plans and financing structures
• Identifying specific investment opportunities
• Assisting investors to respond to developer-initiated Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for investing in projects.
• Assessing feasibility of developer-proposed projects
• Negotiating equity and debt letters of intent, term sheets, and final documentation
• Coordinating due diligence reviews
• Reviewing proposed investment structures, projects, and contracts for their ability to attract third party capital
• Sourcing co-development equity capital
• Sourcing tax-oriented equity capital
• Structuring and identifying commercial bank and other debt financing
• Advising on new financing structures addressing market constraints
• Performing Monte Carlo simulations and other sensitivity analyses on financial models of proposed projects.
• Evaluating and creating Excel-based financial model templates for analyzing potential investment projects
• Facilitating clean renewable energy bond (CREB) investments
• Identifying and supporting in applying for public sector clean power grants, loans, and other project-related incentives.
• Acquisition-related reasonableness reviews of clean power projects
• Compliance monitoring for projects under construction and in operation