Academy · 03 / 01 · Markets
Energy-project lifecycle
Turn an opportunity into stage gates, evidence and disciplined decisions.
Live data · verify before use
- Level
- Foundation
- Reading time
- 13 min
- Reviewed
- 2026-08-24
- Next review
- 2027-08-24
- Jurisdiction
- Global
What you will learn
- 01Separate origination, development, financing, construction and operations.
- 02Define evidence for each go/no-go gate.
- 03Recognize that queue capacity is not a project pipeline.
Core concepts
01
Development reduces uncertainty
Resource, land, interconnection, permits, social and environmental studies, offtake, design, supply chain and financing advance at different speeds. A stage-gate system states what evidence is required, who owns it and what risk remains before spending more capital.
02
A queue is not a forecast
Connection queues include early, duplicate and speculative requests. IEA reports more than 2,500 GW of generation, storage and large loads in queues globally; that figure shows system pressure, not how much will reach operation.
Decision notes
- 01Record the source, owner and expiry of every development assumption.
- 02Keep sunk cost separate from the next investment decision.
Primary sources
Open the official source and confirm its current edition, jurisdiction and adoption before applying it.