When a project does clear its feasibility study, the real wait begins. The national median from interconnection request to energization is 4 years for utility-scale solar, 38 months for storage, 5 years for onshore wind, and 19 months for a substation upgrade^[6].

A four-year queue means carrying deposits on land nobody is allowed to build on, month after month, for 48 straight billing cycles. It means re-bidding transformer contracts twice before a shovel moves. For developers holding a signed offtake agreement, every restudy is another renegotiation — and financing does not wait politely.