> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.suno.finance/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.suno.finance/overview/the-problem.md). # The problem Why mid-scale solar in emerging markets goes unfunded, and why the capital that wants it has no vehicle. Clean energy is short of capital, and the shortage is worst exactly where solar works best. Developing economies need more than [$1.7 trillion a year](https://unctad.org/news/unctad-calls-urgent-support-developing-countries-attract-massive-investment-clean-energy) of climate-related investment; less than $0.7 trillion arrives. The capital that does flow concentrates in developed markets, while emerging economies, home to two thirds of the world's population and much of the planet's best solar resource, receive roughly 15% of climate finance. The sun is in one place and the money is in another. ## The missing middle Look closer and the gap has a shape. Very large projects (utility-scale farms in the hundreds of millions) can afford the bankers, lawyers, and year-long structuring that traditional project finance demands. Very small ones (a rooftop here, a rooftop there) fit inside consumer lending. The middle is stranded. Mid-scale solar plants, roughly $500 thousand to $2 million each, are the natural unit of distributed generation. They are built close to the consumers they serve, they connect quickly, and in many markets they sell energy under long-term contracts or regulated tariffs. As businesses they are boring in the best sense: predictable production, contracted revenue, decades of useful life. And yet they go unfunded, because the machinery of project finance was never built for their size. Transaction and advisory costs do not shrink with the ticket, structuring takes months a small developer cannot carry, and lenders want bundled portfolios that local developers have no way to assemble. The result is a class of productive, cash-generating assets that global capital has no instrument to reach. ## Capital without a vehicle The other side of the gap is just as real. There is broad, growing demand for investments that pay a sustainable return and mean something, from retail savers to institutions with climate mandates. What that demand lacks is a vehicle: something liquid, accessible from anywhere, transparent about what backs it, that channels money into this stranded middle of the energy transition. Building that vehicle is what the rest of this documentation describes. The short version is next, in [What Suno builds](/overview/what-suno-builds.md). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.suno.finance/overview/the-problem.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.