Get It. Fund It. Build It. Run It. 2026-07-21 · 7 min · Human Pace, The Audio Edition ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, I'm T. I translate risk for people making capital decisions in clean energy and AI infrastructure. This is Human Pace, the audio edition. Today's piece is called Get It. Fund It. Build It. Run It. This is a framework for decisions, handoffs, and accountability across a solar project's lifecycle in four stages - Get. Fund. Build. Run - and six decision gates with clear owners at every step. The written detail is posted on cleanpowerwhisperer.ai. At the highest level, here is how you can apply the framework to run a project review. Here are five steps. Step one. Locate the project. Get. Fund. Build. or Run - which stage are you in? Step two. Identify the decision gate. Which decision gate best describes what has to move forward? Step three. Frame the decision. I have created a matrix to give you clarity around the supporting actions, the critical decision, the components, the desired outcome, and the reality check. On to step four. Assemble the team. Here, I provide the matrix which shows who contributes, who decides, and who challenges it. Step five. Prepare the decision. The Prompt Toolkit builds the pack, tests the evidence, and records the outcome. So, those are 5 steps: shape the opportunity, secure project viability, commit capital, contract and build, energize and hand over, finally - operate and optimize. Within each step, if you name the wrong decision gate, everything after it answers the wrong question. So let me walk you through all six decision gates in sequence to illustrate. Decision Gate one. Shape the Opportunity. The decision: where should you play, and which opportunities deserve development resources? Decision Gate two. Secure Project Viability. Here you are asking: do you control a project that can realistically obtain permit, reach interconnection, have a path to secure contracted revenue, and financing? Decision Gate three. Commit Capital. Is the risk-adjusted investment financeable on acceptable terms, and should capital be committed? Decision Gate four. Contract and Build. The question on the table: can you execute the contracted project safely, on time, on budget, and to specification? Decision Gate five. Energize and Hand Over. The decision: is the plant ready to energize, accept, and transfer to operations? Finally, Decision Gate six. Operate and Optimize. Essentially: are you converting the operating asset into durable cash flow and portfolio value? Now let me walk you through two of these gates properly, as an example, so you can hear how a gate is built. Let's pick gate three and gate five. Gate three is where the money gets committed. Gate five is where a physical plant is supposed to become a business. Both are places where a decision can look clean on paper can go wrong without anyone noticing at the time. First, decision gate 3, Commit Capital. Is the risk-adjusted investment financeable on acceptable terms, and should capital be committed? The critical components that we review include: financial model, downside cases, offtake and material contracts, tax and incentives, insurance, technical and legal diligence, debt and equity structure, risk tolerance, and closing conditions. What is the desired outcome? Investment approval, committed capital, defined conditions, executed financing documents, and authority to proceed. Instead, what could we have? Inconsistent model versions. False precision. Omitted obligations. Double-counted incentives. A weak downside scenarios. Any one of those could turn a financial model into unsupported confidence. That is the failure mode at gate three, and it does not announce itself. Now gate five. Energize and Hand Over: is the plant ready to energize, accept, and transfer to operations? What has to be on the table? Commissioning results, utility approval, performance testing, SCADA control system, cybersecurity, warranties, spare parts, commercial acceptance. What is the desired outcome at this decision gate? Commercial operation approval and accepted handover. Instead, what could we have? Premature acceptance. Incomplete testing. Any of those could transfer a physical plant that is not yet an operating asset. A completed plant and an operating asset are two different things, and gate five is where a company finds out which one it just accepted. So that is what goes inside decision gate 3 and 5. But the decision gates are only half of it because the moments a project is most likely to drop are the moments it changes hands. Each handoff names the transfer, and the minimum evidence that has to move with it. From Get It, to Fund It. The development team transfers from a promising opportunity to an investable project. with minimum evidence includes site control, permitting path, interconnection position, preliminary design, and offtake strategy. From Fund to Build. The financing and investment teams transfer from a financial model to executable authority. with minimum evidence includes approved capital, executed material contracts, financing conditions, insurance placement, and tax alignment. From Build to Run It. The construction team transfers an operating asset, not merely a completed physical plant. Minimum evidence includes commissioning results, utility approval, performance tests, SCADA and cybersecurity readiness. At the highest level, that is the framework. Four stages of a project lifecycle, six decision gates. The written version is available on cleanpowerwhisperer.ai. That's the piece. If any of this is live in your own portfolio and you'd like to think it through with someone, you know where to find me. Stay curious. Be safe. Be well.