Solar projects run on a stack of contracts drafted at different times, by different lawyers, for different purposes. This checklist is a structured way to read through that stack and confirm that each document says what the project team believes it says, and that the documents agree with one another. It is organized by document type, with a final section on the cross-document checks that catch the most expensive problems.
The right time to use it is before you need it. Most teams reach for a review checklist during financing diligence or a sale, when a buyer’s counsel is already generating questions and the schedule is fixed. Running the same review during development, as each document is drafted, converts a diligence scramble into routine work. It is equally useful when you inherit a project and need to understand what you actually acquired.
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Contract Review Checklist for Solar Project Documents
Review the core project documents one by one, then test them against each other for consistency. Tick items as they clear, mark what does not apply, and print or export your list.
A review that starts with the first page of the first document tends to miss structure. Establishing the inventory and ownership chart first tells you whether the entity that signed a document is the entity that holds the project.
Site control review covers leases, options, easements and the title work supporting them. The purpose is to confirm the project has durable, recorded, transferable rights covering every area it occupies or crosses.
The offtake review confirms that the revenue assumptions in the financial model have a contractual basis. Read the pricing exhibit against the model rather than reading the pricing section in isolation.
Interconnection review is partly documentary and partly technical. Read the appendices with an engineer, because the obligations that affect equipment selection live there.
Construction documents allocate completion risk. The review confirms the scope is complete, the schedule ties to the project's other obligations, and the warranty package survives a change in ownership.
Operating agreements get reviewed less often than they should, usually because they are signed after the financing focus has passed. They still determine whether obligations elsewhere can be met.
Most serious findings come from comparing documents rather than reading any one of them. These checks are quick once the individual reviews are complete.
Adapt the items to your project and use them alongside the governing documents and your advisors. Ticks and notes stay on this device only.
How to Use This Checklist
Work document by document first, then run the cross-document section, recording every item as confirmed, open or not applicable rather than simply marking progress. The open items become the cure list, and a cure list with named owners and dates is what actually moves a project forward. Attach a page and section reference for each confirmed item so a later reviewer can verify your work without repeating it.
What this checklist does not do is evaluate whether any term is appropriate for your project. It is a completeness and consistency tool: it helps you find what is missing, inconsistent or undefined. Judging whether a provision is acceptable requires a view of the specific transaction, the counterparties and the risk the owner is prepared to carry, and that judgment belongs to the deal team and its advisors.
Treat this as an educational framework rather than legal advice, because that is what it is. Contract terms, enforceability, recording requirements and regulatory constraints vary by jurisdiction, by utility and by counterparty, and no checklist substitutes for reading the actual documents in context. Qualified counsel should review every project document before it is signed, and again before a financing or sale closes.