Solar Plus Garden raises capital in phases. People sometimes read that as hesitancy — a project testing the water before committing. It is the opposite. The phasing is imposed by European law, and understanding why explains most of what follows.
Why the Project Is Phased at All
Under the ECSPR — the European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation — a single project owner may raise no more than €5 million from the public in any calendar year. That is a hard regulatory ceiling, not a target and not a preference.
The full build-out of a 10 MW plant needs €7.2 million. That is more than €5 million. So the raise cannot happen in one go, and it is structured across phases and calendar years to stay inside the rule.
Everything below follows from that single constraint.
Phase 1 — Up to €2.2 Million
The first phase targets up to €2.2 million and establishes the project: securing the site, the ready-to-build position, and the initial construction capital.
- Available format: equity — the flexible, long-horizon revenue share. Not capped.
- Not available yet: the conservative loan. The project cannot accept debt participation in Phase 1 — it opens in Phase 2, once there is a built or ready-to-build asset for the security to attach to.
- But you can register interest for it now. Registering costs nothing and is how you are told the moment Phase 2 opens. Given the loan tranche is capped, that notice is the difference between participating and reading that it filled.
- Minimum participation: €500.
If you want the fixed-rate loan format rather than equity, Phase 1 is not your entry point — but it is when you should be on the waiting list, because that is how you learn the moment Phase 2 opens.
Phase 2 — Up to €7.2 Million in Total
Phase 2 carries the raise to the full €7.2 million build-out — roughly €5 million beyond Phase 1, spread to respect the annual ceiling.
- The conservative loan opens here — fixed 10% annual for ten years, principal returned via a sinking fund. For most of the interest registered so far, this is the format people have been waiting for.
- The loan tranche is capped. There is a limit to how much debt the project can take on, so this format is available only up to that ceiling. Equity is not limited in the same way.
The split between the two formats in the interest registered to date is telling: of roughly €1.1 million of non-binding interest expressed since 28 August 2026, about €900,000 is for the conservative loan and €200,000 for flexible equity. Most people arriving at this project want the defined outcome.
That is expressed interest — not funds received, and not commitments to invest.
Phase 3 — Battery Storage (BESS)
Phase 3 adds a battery energy storage system, and it is the phase with the least settled detail. That is worth saying plainly rather than dressing up.
What a battery does for this project is straightforward. A solar plant produces when the sun is up, which is frequently when regional electricity prices are at their lowest, because every other solar plant is producing at the same moment. Storage decouples the two: generate at midday, sell in the evening peak. The same kilowatt-hour earns more.
That is why the investment calculator shows BESS as a multiplier on returns rather than a separate line item.
How it gets financed is not yet fixed. The plan has been bank financing — debt at the company level, leaving investor positions untouched. But depending on the level of investor interest, it may proceed without bank involvement. Which route is taken will be confirmed when Phase 3 is defined.
There are no figures for Phase 3 yet. Anyone giving you a BESS return number today is extrapolating.
The Operating Timeline
The financial model runs from 2027 to 2051 — a twenty-five-year operating horizon from first generation.
- 2027 — generation begins. Loan interest payments start in Year 1 for loan participants.
- 2037 — end of Year 10. Loan principal is returned in full from the sinking fund; the loan tranche exits.
- From around Year 12 — revenue that had been servicing the loan becomes available to equity holders. Equity distributions step up rather than continuing flat. This is why the equity case is a long-horizon case.
- 2051 — end of the modelled period.
Where the Project Stands Today
| Status | |
|---|---|
| Phase 1 target | Up to €2.2 million |
| Full build-out | €7.2 million |
| Milestone target by 1 Jan 2027 | €5 million — which is also the ECSPR annual ceiling |
| Interest expressed since 28 Aug 2026 | ~€1.1 million (non-binding) |
| Of which conservative loan | ~€900,000 |
| Of which flexible equity | ~€200,000 |
| Capacity | 10 MW, South Vojvodina, Serbia |
| Phase 3 (BESS) | Planned; financing route and figures not yet fixed |
What This Means for Your Timing
If you want equity, it is open from Phase 1 and continues into Phase 2.
If you want the fixed-rate loan, you are waiting for Phase 2 — and waiting in a queue for a capped allocation. Around €900,000 of registered interest is already pointed at this format. This is the one place in the project where timing genuinely decides whether you get in.
In both cases the waiting list is what turns a phase opening into something you can act on rather than read about afterwards. It costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and is how the full financial model and phase documentation reach you before a round opens.
Join the investor waiting list →
Frequently Asked Questions
Why not just raise €7.2 million at once?
Because ECSPR does not allow it. €5 million per project owner per calendar year is a regulatory ceiling on public fundraising in the EU.
What happens if Phase 1 does not reach €2.2 million?
Funds sit with an independent escrow agent and are released only against defined conditions. What happens to committed capital if a phase does not complete is governed by those escrow terms, set out in the phase documentation.
Is the €1.1 million already invested?
No. It is non-binding interest registered through the waiting list — an indication of demand, not funds received and not commitments. Nobody has paid anything.
Can I choose which phase I participate in?
In effect, yes — by choosing your format. Equity is open from Phase 1 onward. The loan opens in Phase 2, up to its cap.
Will Phase 3 change my existing position?
If BESS is financed at company level through a bank, existing investor positions are not diluted. If it proceeds another way, terms would be set out at that time. Nothing about Phase 3 is settled yet.
What is the €5 million figure on the homepage?
It is both. €5 million is the project’s milestone target by 1 January 2027, and it is also the maximum a project owner may raise from the public in a calendar year under ECSPR. The target sits at the ceiling deliberately — there is no point aiming past a limit you are not allowed to cross.
This page describes a plan and a regulatory framework. Phase targets, timing and availability may change. Figures are illustrative and drawn from the project’s financial model; they are not promises and may not be realised. Nothing here is an offer of securities, a solicitation or investment advice. Participation occurs only through the applicable authorised platform or agreement.
