The Rise of Climate Project Crowdfunding (Climatize, Raise Green/Honeycomb Credit & Beyond)
Market Context: The Climate Investment Surge of 2025
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I’ve been thinking a lot about how different 2025 has felt for climate investing—and how much that matters for those of us who care about impact crowdfunding.
On one hand, we’ve seen worsening climate signals and investors looking for real, measurable solutions. On the other, we’ve watched the federal government pull back from climate commitments in ways that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago. That tension is creating a powerful opening for climate project crowdfunding as this year winds down and we look toward 2026.
Why Climate Project Crowdfunding Is Surging Now
Project-based climate crowdfunding lets everyday investors put money directly into specific solar arrays, efficiency upgrades, or community-scale infrastructure, typically via Reg CF. Instead of buying stock in a startup with a ten-year exit horizon, you’re funding a particular asset with a defined term and target yield. For many retail investors, that feels more concrete, more controllable, and more obviously tied to real-world emissions reductions.
At the same time, clean energy developers are running into a much tougher federal policy environment. On day one of his second term, President Trump froze unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan infrastructure law, ordering agencies to halt disbursements and reassess climate-related spending. (See Columbia Law Blogs.) More recently, the Department of Energy eliminated key clean-energy offices and canceled billions of dollars in projects slated for hydrogen, battery storage, and grid modernization. (See The Wall Street Journal.)
Congress joined in. H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” pushed through the 119th Congress, slashed or accelerated the sunset of several clean-energy tax credits, further weakening long-term policy support. Analysts now project a steep drop in new renewable capacity by 2035 and have already tracked a sharp decline in large-scale renewable investment this year. (See Congress.gov.)
Put simply: public money is less reliable, but the need for climate solutions hasn’t shrunk. That combination is sending more developers—and more impact-minded investors—into the arms of community-scale, project-based financing, including Reg CF offerings.
Who’s Actually Doing Project Finance?
A small but growing set of platforms is explicitly built around climate project investing.
Climatize focuses on community solar and similar projects, letting investors participate with as little as $10. As of this fall, Climatize reports over $12.3 million raised for 26 renewable energy projects nationwide, many focused on nonprofits, schools, and community facilities. A Minnesota developer, Enterprise Energy, recently raised $600,000 on the platform for community-solar work, offering 11.25% fixed interest on a two-year note to pre-finance project development. (See Finance & Commerce.)
On the debt side, Honeycomb Credit has become a home for several climate-aligned issuers. The Connecticut Green Bank’s Green Liberty Notes—one-year notes typically paying around 4.5%—are offered quarterly through Honeycomb, with a minimum investment of $100 (I’ve invested in these, routinely rolling over the investment to keep earning green dividends). More than $4 million has been raised to date, and over 60% of original investments have been $1,000 or less, showing broad citizen participation.
The National Energy Improvement Fund (NEIF) has also used Reg CF via Honeycomb to offer preferred equity certificates. Depending on check size, investors can earn 7–8.5% fixed annual returns over a seven-year term while funding loans for energy-efficiency upgrades in homes and commercial buildings—insulation, HVAC, windows, battery storage, and more.
These are classic examples of project or program finance: capital is raised to fund a portfolio of qualifying projects with defined cash-flow sources (loan repayments, power sales, or program revenues), rather than to grow a single startup’s enterprise value.
Don’t Forget the Big Generalist Portals
Even though the pure project-finance activity is concentrated on specialist platforms, the big generalist portals are far from absent in climate.
On Wefunder, investors can back companies like BlocPower, which finances and manages building electrification and energy-efficiency retrofits in underserved neighborhoods, or Zero Carbon Inc., which aims to turn waste into clean energy. There are also high-risk, high-impact bets such as LPPFusion, developing a fusion-energy technology, or industrial decarbonization plays like Airthium.
StartEngine likewise hosts a wide array of climate-related issuers: solar innovators like GoSun, home and commercial energy-storage providers like YouSolar, and EV charging and electrified-transportation ventures such as AEV Charging and New Use Energy.
Most of these Wefunder and StartEngine deals are company-equity raises, not project-specific notes. In my view, that makes the specialist project-finance portals complementary to, not competitive with, the big platforms. Investors who care about climate can use equity deals to back the “picks and shovels” of the transition and project-finance deals to fund the actual steel in the ground.
In addition to the most popular portals, some of the smaller ones are also bringing climate solutions to market, including FundingHope, one of our most generous sponsors.
Policy Whiplash: Less Public Money, More Private Urgency
Policy is doing something paradoxical this year: it’s making life harder for climate developers while also making climate capital more politically salient.
Trump’s executive order freezing IRA and infrastructure funds and the subsequent rollback of clean-energy grants and offices at DOE have already led to the cancellation of hundreds of projects, from hydrogen hubs to grid upgrades. (See Center for Global Sustainability.) H.R. 1’s changes to tax credits add another layer of uncertainty.
Developers are scrambling to close deals under remaining incentives before mid-decade deadlines hit, even as they prepare for a leaner future with fewer federal grants and weaker tax credit support. Analysts already see a near-term rush followed by a projected 53–59% drop in new renewable capacity by 2035 under current policies. Financial Times+1
For investors, this policy backlash has an unintended side effect: it clarifies the stakes. When Washington walks away from clean-energy commitments, it becomes impossible to pretend that “someone else” will handle the transition. Project-based Reg CF deals give retail investors a way to fill a portion of that gap—modest in the grand scheme, but meaningful in specific communities.
What Makes These Deals Appealing—and Risky
Financially, many project-finance offerings advertise yields that look attractive next to both public equities and bank CDs. Community solar notes in the 9–11% range or energy-efficiency preferred equity paying 7–8.5% stand out in a world where cash yields have started to drift lower again while stock markets remain volatile.
Impact-wise, the appeal is straightforward. A project-based deal often comes with concrete metrics: kilowatts of capacity installed, kilowatt-hours generated, tons of CO₂ avoided, or dollar savings for low-income customers. For investors weary of abstract ESG marketing, those numbers feel refreshingly tangible.
Of course, the risk side of the ledger is real. These are still early-stage projects with execution risk: delays in interconnection, permitting hurdles, contractor problems, or off-taker default can all impair returns. Technology risk can crop up as well, especially in deals involving newer storage or grid technologies rather than mature solar PV. (See Center for Global Sustainability.)
Policy risk hasn’t gone away either. A particularly harsh change in net-metering rules or local incentives can dent project economics mid-stream. And because many of these offerings are relatively small and idiosyncratic, diversification is both more important and harder to achieve for retail investors writing a few hundred dollars per deal.
Three Quick Snapshots from the Field
1. Community Solar in Minnesota (Climatize + Enterprise Energy)
Enterprise Energy used Climatize to raise $600,000 for a portfolio of Minnesota community-solar projects, offering investors a 24-month, 11.25% interest-only note. The proceeds cover pre-development costs, with repayment expected from long-term project financing and power-purchase revenues. The impact thesis is straightforward: expand access to solar, hedge customers against rising power prices, and keep clean-energy jobs local.
2. Green Liberty Notes (Connecticut Green Bank + Honeycomb)
The Connecticut Green Bank’s Green Liberty Notes are a textbook example of democratized climate finance. Offered quarterly on Honeycomb, they carry a one-year term, low minimums (around $100), and accessible interest rates—most recently about 4.5%. Proceeds fund a portfolio of energy-efficiency and clean-energy programs across the state. With more than $4 million raised and a majority of investments under $1,000, they show real citizen engagement in state-level climate work.
3. Solar for Regenerative Agriculture (Gold Leaf Farming + Climatize)
Gold Leaf Farming, a regenerative tree-nut grower in California and Arizona, is using Climatize to finance a 370 kW solar array at its Unicorn Road almond orchard. The 48-month, interest-only construction-stage note pays 9.5% simple interest, with quarterly payments and principal due at maturity. The system is expected to offset roughly 90% of the farm’s electricity use and avoid more than 500 metric tons of CO₂ annually, while improving farm economics in a water- and energy-stressed region.
Why This Fits Impact-First Investors So Well
For impact-first investors, project-based climate crowdfunding checks several important boxes.
First, measurability: these deals lend themselves to specific, auditable impact metrics—megawatt-hours generated, emissions avoided, or households served. That makes it much easier to assess whether your capital is doing what you hoped.
Second, additionality: in an era of canceled grants and frozen IRA funds, it’s easier to argue that each marginal dollar in a project-finance offering is making something happen that otherwise might not. When the federal government steps back from climate projects, the bar for additionality in private capital actually gets lower—but the moral urgency gets higher.
Third, democratization: minimum investments in the $10–$100 range let people participate who will never qualify for a private climate fund or a tax-equity deal. Platforms like Climatize, Honeycomb, and others align with the spirit of Reg CF—opening the doors to ordinary investors, not just institutions or the ultra-wealthy.
Finally, project deals can become a portfolio building block alongside impact crowdfunding via equity in climate startups. You might choose to hold a basket of project notes for income and measurable impact while using Wefunder or StartEngine to back earlier-stage climate tech companies that could drive transformative change if they succeed.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As 2025 draws to a close, I see a paradoxical but hopeful picture. Federal policy is clearly less supportive of clean energy than it was a year ago, and that will slow some large-scale build-out and increase risk for developers who relied heavily on grants and tax credits.
At the same time, the market signal from citizens and investors is unmistakable. People want ways to put their money to work on climate solutions they can see and understand. Developers want flexible, values-aligned capital that doesn’t evaporate when the political winds shift. Project-based climate crowdfunding sits right at that intersection.
I don’t pretend Reg CF will single-handedly replace federal climate funding or Wall Street-scale infrastructure capital. But as we head into 2026, I believe we’ll look back on 2025 as the year when project-level climate crowdfunding stopped being a niche experiment and started to emerge as a real pillar of the transition.
For those of us who care about both impact and inclusion, that’s an encouraging story to be part of.
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