Over the past several years, renewable energy M&A has grown larger and more competitive, but not necessarily more predictable. The U.S. interconnection queue now exceeds 2.6 TW of projects currently under study, with PJM alone representing far more than 100,000 MW of proposed projects within its service territory.

At first glance, the queue suggests an abundant number of projects for acquisition. In practice, however, only a portion of these projects will clear interconnection. Being able to assess the queue and see the gap between what is filed and what ultimately proves viable is critical to a successful M&A strategy.

Recent policy changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act have further tightened timelines for projects to qualify for tax incentives, while development timelines themselves have not materially shortened. This mismatch increases the importance of early viability assessment and disciplined portfolio selection, alongside decisions about safe harboring and protecting project value by allocating capital at earlier than typical stages.

We built this report to surface the structural signals that shape acquisition conditions in PJM: where MW is concentrated in the queue, how interconnection costs vary across geographies, and when projects are targeting commercial operation. Our goal is simple. To help renewable M&A teams distinguish between volume and viability, and to operate with greater clarity in an increasingly complex queue environment.

This report analyzes projects currently active in the PJM interconnection queue across solar, storage, wind, and natural gas technologies. While REplace is focused on renewable energy development and M&A, natural gas projects are included to reflect the full competitive and interconnection landscape in PJM, where gas can influence upgrade allocation, study outcomes, and queue dynamics.

REplace's iQueue platform continuously tracks and analyzes the full PJM interconnection queue. For this report, we filtered to the most relevant subset for M&A evaluation: active projects with assigned Commercial Operation Dates in the EP, TC1, and TC2 process cycles, representing approximately one-third of total queue volume. Deactivated, withdrawn, and in-service projects were excluded. Data as of February 9, 2026.

PJM coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or part of 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) and the District of Columbia. All state and county level observations refer exclusively to projects located within PJM's service territory and should not be interpreted as representing full statewide market conditions.

This analysis is intentionally structural rather than project-specific. Project outcomes are shaped by additional factors not captured here, including permitting dynamics, site constraints, transmission configuration, ownership strategy, and local infrastructure conditions. These elements vary case by case.

Average estimated interconnection cost across PJM states

The figure below illustrates estimated average interconnection cost per watt across PJM states. Green indicates the lowest cost environments, yellow reflects moderate cost levels, and red highlights the highest cost regions. Interconnection cost varies meaningfully across high volume markets.