Ten years ago, Onyx Renewables was sparked by Blackstone to power commercial and industrial spaces with solar. A decade later, that same spark has turned into a nationwide fire, lit across 35 states, 400+ projects deep, and now supercharged with $260 million in fresh institutional fuel.
Let’s not just talk about funding, let’s talk about firepower. This isn’t just capital, it’s confidence. Apterra Infrastructure Capital stepped in as the mastermind orchestrator, joined by heavyweights like Investec and ATLAS SP Partners (from the Apollo family). These aren’t casual names. These are precision lenders who don’t gamble on “potential,” they bet on proof. And Onyx Renewables delivered. This deal replaces their previous $100 million revolver. That’s not a pivot, that’s a progression.
Mary Beth Mandanas isn’t new to the energy finance game. She played the long arc at Sol Systems and CleanChoice Energy before taking the reins at Onyx. When you’re raising nine figures in this market, you don’t need buzzwords, you need leadership with a balance sheet for a backbone and a blueprint for a battleground. CFO Jamie Weber’s 25+ years in capital markets, including GE Capital and Cubico, rounds out a finance team built not to weather storms, but to scale through them.
This facility isn’t sitting idle. It’s locked and loaded for 150+ MW of new distributed solar, beefed up with battery storage and electric vehicle infrastructure. The goal? Give commercial and industrial customers the keys to energy independence while dodging grid volatility like a boss. Onyx is scaling solar portfolios that do more than offset emissions, they offset headaches.
Let’s get tactical: Toyota Boshoku America in Illinois now covers 85% of its energy needs with a 5.7 MW install. The City of Downey is stacking $10 million in savings thanks to solar + storage. And if you thought Manhattan’s solar footprint was modest, meet the new heavyweight, 62 rooftops across StuyTown and Peter Cooper, making it NYC’s largest solar generator.
And the tech? Clean, precise, and calculated. Think rooftop arrays, floating PV, Tesla Megapacks, and grid-savvy algorithms that peak-shave like they’re cutting vinyl. Community solar? 45 MW serving 12,000+ households. Storage? Eight-hour lithium ion configurations with grid service capabilities that don’t just play defense, they run the offense too.
Onyx isn’t chasing the energy future. They’re engineering it. With Net Zero operations by 2028 and a diverse hiring mandate that actually means something, the team isn’t just powering buildings, they’re powering progress.
Mandanas. Weber. Swayze. Stone. This isn’t a team, it’s a blueprint. The rest of the industry would be wise to take notes.
