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Item 3 — Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Ha Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. · 10-Q · Q2 FY2026 · Period ended Jun 30, 2026
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We anticipate that our primary market risks will be related to the credit quality of our counterparties and project companies, market interest rates, the liquidity of our assets, commodity prices and environmental factors. We will seek to manage these risks while, at the same time, seeking to provide an opportunity to stockholders to realize attractive returns through ownership of our common stock.
Credit Risks
We source and identify quality opportunities within our broad areas of expertise and apply our rigorous underwriting processes to our transactions, which, we believe, will generally enable us to minimize our credit losses and maintain access to attractive financing. Through our investments in various projects, we will be exposed to the credit risk of the obligor of the project’s PPA or other long-term contractual revenue commitments, as well as to the credit risk of certain suppliers and project operators. We have invested in mezzanine loans and, as a result, we are exposed to additional credit risk. We are exposed to credit risk in our commercial investments such as on-balance sheet financing of projects undertaken by universities, schools and hospitals, as well as privately owned climate solutions projects. While we do not anticipate facing significant credit risk in our assets related to government energy efficiency projects, we are subject to varying degrees of credit risk in these projects in relation to guarantees provided by ESCOs where payments under energy savings performance contracts are contingent upon achieving pre-determined levels of energy savings. We seek to manage credit risk through thorough due diligence and underwriting processes, strong structural protections in our transaction agreements with customers and continual, active asset management and portfolio monitoring. Nevertheless, unanticipated credit losses could occur and during periods of economic
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downturn in the global economy, our exposure to credit risks from obligors increases, and our efforts to monitor and mitigate the associated risks may not be effective in reducing our credit risks.
We use a risk rating system to evaluate projects that we target. We first evaluate the credit rating of the off-takers or counterparties involved in the project using an average of the external credit ratings for an obligor, if available, or an estimated internal rating based on a third-party credit scoring system. We then estimate the probability of default and estimated recovery rate based on the obligors’ credit ratings and the terms of the contract. We also review the performance of each investment, including through, as appropriate, a review of project performance, monthly payment activity and active compliance monitoring, regular communications with project management and, as applicable, its obligors, sponsors and owners, monitoring the financial performance of the collateral, periodic property visits and monitoring cash management and reserve accounts. The results of our reviews are used to update the project’s risk rating as necessary. Additional detail of the credit risks surrounding our Portfolio can be found in Note 6 to our financial statements in this Form 10-Q.
Interest Rate and Borrowing Risks
Interest rate risk is highly sensitive to many factors, including governmental monetary and tax policies, domestic and international economic and political considerations and other factors beyond our control.
We are subject to interest rate risk in connection with new asset originations, as increasing interest rates may reduce the demand for our investments while declining interest rates may increase the demand. We are subject to interest rate risk in connection with our floating-rate borrowings, and in the future, any new floating rate assets, credit facilities or other borrowings. Because short-term borrowings are generally short-term commitments of capital, lenders may respond to market conditions, making it more difficult for us to secure continued financing. If we are not able to renew our then existing borrowings or arrange for new financing on terms acceptable to us, or if we default on our covenants or are otherwise unable to access funds under any of these borrowings, we may have to curtail our origination of new assets and/or dispose of assets. We face particular risk in this regard given that we expect many of our borrowings will have a shorter duration than the assets they finance. Both our current and future revolving credit facilities and other borrowings may be of limited duration and are periodically refinanced at then current market rates. We attempt to reduce interest rate risks and to minimize exposure to interest rate fluctuations through the use of fixed rate financing structures, when appropriate, whereby we seek to (1) match the maturities of our debt obligations with the maturities of our assets, (2) borrow at fixed rates for a period of time or (3) match the interest rates on our assets with like-kind debt (i.e., we may finance floating rate assets with floating rate debt and fixed-rate assets with fixed-rate debt), directly or through the use of interest rate derivatives or other financial instruments, or through a combination of these strategies. We expect these instruments will allow us to minimize, but not eliminate, the risk that we must refinance our liabilities before the maturities of our assets and to reduce the impact of changing interest rates on our earnings. In addition to the use of traditional derivative instruments, we also seek to mitigate interest rate risk by using securitizations, syndications and other techniques to construct a portfolio with a staggered maturity profile. We monitor the impact of interest rate changes on the market for new originations and often have the flexibility to negotiate the terms of our investments to offset interest rate increases.
Typically, our long-term debt, or that of the projects in which we invest if applicable, is at fixed rates or may at times be fixed using interest rate hedges that convert most of the floating rate debt to fixed rate debt. If interest rates rise, and our fixed rate debt balance remains constant, we expect the fair value of our fixed rate debt to decrease and the value of our hedges, if any, on floating rate debt to increase. See Note 3 to our financial statements in this Form 10-Q for the estimated fair value of our fixed rate long-term debt, which is based on upon observed transactions for those assets in active markets.
We have $5.6 billion of debt with either fixed rates or which we have hedged pursuant to strategies described above to hedge floating rate debt. We have $278 million of debt outstanding as of June 30, 2026 with unhedged variable interest rates. Accordingly, an increase in benchmark interest rates of 0.5% would increase the quarterly interest expense related to our variable rate borrowings by $348 thousand, while a decrease of 0.5% would lower the quarterly interest expense by the same amount. Such hypothetical impact of interest rates on our variable-rate borrowings does not consider the effect of any change in overall economic activity that could occur in a rising interest rate environment. Further, in the event of such a change in interest rates, we may take actions to further mitigate our exposure to such a change. However, due to the uncertainty of the specific actions that would be taken and their possible effects, the analysis assumes no changes in our financial structure.
We record certain of our assets at fair value in our financial statements and any changes in the discount rate would impact the value of these assets. See Note 3 to our financial statements in this Form 10-Q.
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Liquidity and Concentration Risk
The assets that comprise our Portfolio are not and are not expected to be publicly traded. A portion of these assets may be subject to legal and other restrictions on resale or will otherwise be less liquid than publicly-traded securities. The illiquidity of our assets may make it difficult for us to sell such assets if the need or desire arises, including in response to changes in economic and other conditions. Many of our assets, or the collateral supporting those assets, are concentrated in certain geographic areas and markets, which may make those assets or the related collateral more susceptible to market or environmental disruptions. As it relates to environmental risks, when we underwrite and structure our investments the environmental risks and opportunities are an integral consideration to our investment parameters See also “Credit Risks” discussed above.
Commodity and Environmental Attribute Price Risk
When we make equity or debt investments in an energy transition project that acts as a substitute for an underlying commodity, we may be exposed to volatility in prices for that commodity. The performance of renewable energy projects that produce electricity or natural gas can be impacted by volatility in the market prices of various forms of energy, including electricity, coal and natural gas. This is especially true for GC utility scale projects that sell power on a wholesale basis, whereas BTM projects compete against the retail or delivered costs of electricity which includes the cost of transmitting and distributing the electricity to the end user. Projects in which we invest, or in which we may plan to invest, may also be exposed to volatility in the prices of environmental attributes which the project may produce, such as renewable energy credits (“RECs”) or renewable identification numbers (“RINs”).
The cash flows of certain projects, and thus the repayment of or returns available for our assets, are subject to risk if energy or environmental attribute prices change. Although we generally focus on renewable energy projects that have the majority of their operating cash flow supported by long-term PPAs or leases, many of the projects in which we invest have shorter term contracts (which may have the potential of producing higher current returns) or sell their power, energy or environmental attributes in the open market on a merchant basis. We also attempt to mitigate our exposure through structural protections. These structural protections, which are typically in the form of a preferred return mechanism, are designed to allow recovery of our capital and an acceptable return over time. When structuring and underwriting these transactions, we evaluate these transactions using a variety of scenarios, including natural gas prices remaining low for an extended period of time. As energy or environmental attribute price volatility continues or as PPAs expire, the cash flows from certain of the projects in which we have invested are exposed to these market conditions. We work with the projects sponsors to minimize any impact as part of our on-going active asset management and portfolio monitoring.
Certain of the projects in which we invest may also be obligated to physically deliver energy under PPAs or related agreements, and to the extent they are unable to do so may be negatively impacted. Certain PPAs or related agreements may also price power at a different location than the location where power is delivered to the grid, and the projects may be negatively impacted to the extent to which these prices differ. To the extent transmission and distribution infrastructure in geographies in which we invest is not able to accommodate additional power, additional renewable penetration from other new projects in certain geographic areas could decrease the revenues of our projects.
Risk Management
Our ongoing active asset management and portfolio monitoring processes provide investment oversight and valuable insight into our origination, underwriting and structuring processes. These processes create value through active monitoring of the state of our markets, enforcement of existing contracts and asset management. As described above, we engage in a variety of interest rate management techniques that seek to mitigate the economic effect of interest rate changes on the values of, and returns on, some of our assets. We seek to manage credit risk using thorough due diligence and underwriting processes, strong structural protections in our loan agreements with customers and continual, active asset management and portfolio monitoring. Additionally, we have a Finance and Risk Committee of our board of directors which discusses and reviews policies and guidelines with respect to our risk assessment and risk management for various risks, including, but not limited to, our interest rate, counter party, credit, capital availability, refinancing risks, and cybersecurity risks. As it relates to natural event risks, when we underwrite and structure our investments the environmental risks and opportunities are an integral consideration to our investment parameters. While we cannot fully protect our investments, we seek to mitigate these risks by using third-party experts to conduct engineering and weather analysis and insurance reviews as appropriate. Weather related risks are at times managed in cooperation with our clients where they buy offsetting power positions to mitigate power market disruptions or operational impacts. Once a transaction has closed we continue to monitor the environmental risks to the Portfolio.