By Tracey Dubuque
When the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) passed in July 2025, it reshaped the renewable energy market and injected it with a sense of urgency, accelerating the phase-down of Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC) incentives. Now, the race is on for developers and investors to move projects into construction before critical deadlines hit.
But with this urgency also comes opportunity. This evolving landscape is triggering heightened merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, from fast-tracked acquisitions to asset consolidations. Companies are reevaluating how, and how quickly, to bring their assets online. In the middle of this whirlwind of market shifts is a calming force that can change the way the OBBB affects clients and business: effective due diligence.
Strategic due diligence leads to confident, informed, timely decision-making
Timing is everything now that the renewables M&A market is heating up fast. Due diligence will be more than a formality; it will be a beneficial necessity. Whether you’re looking to divest pipeline assets, acquire projects with near-term construction potential, or consolidate capabilities, due diligence is going to be the thread that ties every decision together across all stages of a project’s lifecycle. It’s a valuable tool that will help identify risks early, assess viability, and align strategy with reality. When done right, it gives both buyers and sellers the confidence they need to move forward and move quickly.
At Atwell, we’ve supported energy clients through regulatory curveballs and market pivots before. What we’ve learned is simple: Due diligence is not just a single service, but a lifecycle that must start early on and evolve with any energy project.
Due diligence through a holistic lens
As leaders at a firm that offers full-service consulting, we have a tried-and-true process for supporting clients with confidence, precision, and expertise, no matter what new regulatory changes may occur.
When it comes to the energy industry in particular, a comprehensive suite of support services from the beginning of a project to its final phases can ensure a smooth M&A process. Here is an outline of how that process typically unfolds, based on our combined years of experience and knowledge:
- Early-stage feasibility and site evaluation. The early stages require groundwork: routing and siting assessments, GIS mapping, and survey support. Our team is also equipped with land services, such as title abstract, landowner outreach, and right-of-way acquisition strategy, coupled with environmental baseline surveys and ecological and biological assessments. This foundation shapes what’s possible in the steps ahead.
- Permitting and regulatory compliance. Navigating regional and national permitting is rarely a straightforward process, especially with compressed timelines. You’ll have greater success with a team that manages everything, from permitting support to environmental compliance and mitigation planning to stakeholder and community engagement.
- Engineering and technical assessment. Every energy project brings a unique mix of technical demands that require evaluation, including electrical, civil, structural, and mechanical engineering. Atwell’s team runs assessments on everything from high-voltage design to generation system design, including utility-scale solar, wind, distributed generation, and energy storage systems.
- Cost estimation and value engineering. With self-performed estimating, in-house cost modeling, and value engineering reviews, we give clients a realistic understanding of the amount of resources they’ll need and identify where efficiencies can be found.
- Construction and EPC evaluation. A strong due diligence team should conduct field-level due diligence on permits, prep the site, and evaluate civil and infrastructure readiness. Turnkey EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) and construction management audits for the schedule, safety, and quality reviews ensure that projects are truly ready to build.
- Program management and risk analysis. With the changing regulatory environment and fast-paced industry movement, clients need to feel confident from the beginning to end of a project’s lifecycle. We stay with our clients every step of the way, offering full program integration, identifying risks, managing permitting timelines, and addressing environmental and stakeholder challenges.
Work smarter and see results faster with a tiered due diligence approach
Not every transaction calls for the same needs or timelines. A scalable, multi-level due diligence model is another asset that can be easily customized to meet unique and rotating needs. Atwell’s tiered approach, which applies across multiple services, consists of three levels:
- Level 1: Go/No-go screen. This is a high-level desktop review to spot potential red flags in permitting, siting, and regulations.
- Level 2: Intermediate review. A deeper dive into documentation to uncover risks, data gaps, obligations, and environmental concerns.
- Level 3: Comprehensive review. A full-scale investigation tailored to project complexity, transaction size, or risk profile. It includes additional validation, outreach, and site-specific evaluation.
Once the transaction is done, we don’t wipe our hands of it and walk away. We support new asset owners post-transaction, helping them seamlessly integrate the asset into their portfolio, establish or enhance EH&S (environment, health, and safety) management systems, ensure compliance continuity, and provide guidance on emerging regulatory requirements.
An experienced due diligence team makes the difference in high-stakes transactions
Over the years, our team has designed and permitted more than 1,000 wind farms; supported over 1,000 solar projects; permitted, designed, and surveyed more than 5,000 miles of new transmission lines; and generated more than 50 gigawatts of renewable generation and energy storage in our projects. This amount of deep, intricate experience matters—especially now.
Because of our level of expertise, we’ve been able to provide accurate, timely, and high-quality consulting, which is critical at every stage of due diligence support. Having a nationwide footprint with multidisciplinary teams deployed across North America is also an advantage we have that can help buyers and sellers move quickly in today’s high-stakes M&A environment.
Clients who want to remain competitive need a flexible, cross-disciplinary team in their back pocket with a nationwide presence and a breadth of expertise and insights across all disciplines. Not only is due diligence your not-so-secret weapon, but it’s also your protective armor against unexpected changes and movement in the market.
Our Atwell team is helping clients keep in pace with the market while staying one step ahead of risk. In today’s climate, speed and action are essential, but moving with confidence and certainty is invaluable for unlocking new opportunities.
