Why the VerusSol method makes rooftop solar a value driver
Overcoming legal uncertainty and tenant resistance, VerusSol has shown how rooftop solar installations can bring gains for all.
For years, industrial and logistics landlords, fund managers or asset managers have looked at their vast empty rooftops and hesitated. Most people in the industry know those surfaces hold enormous potential for decarbonisation, and they know that regulators, investors, and tenants are demanding action.
And yet many asset managers stalled on a decision. Solar was seen as messy, peripheral, and better left to third-party developers. Returns looked small, tenants were hesitant, legal structures uncertain, and the link to valuation unclear.
The paradox was stark: every investor knew rooftop PV was inevitable, but judged only on IRR via power sales and the numbers never seemed strong enough to justify the effort.
The rooftop paradox
This hesitation created what is often called the “rooftop paradox”. On the one hand, rooftops represented the most obvious, scalable, and sustainable surface in logistics real estate. On the other hand, the economics, legalities, and perception issues made them appear unattractive. This is the reason why there is so much untapped rooftop space.
The structured breakthrough
The breakthrough, argue Colliers and VerusSol, lies not in the panels themselves but in the structure behind them. The VerusSol Method, shaped through years of research and thousands of test calculations, showed that the barrier was never technological. Panels work. Roofs are capable. Financing exists. The real challenge was systemic: legal uncertainty, tenant resistance, misaligned incentives, and regulatory complexity.
The VerusSol Method is designed as a “systematic framework”. It reframes rooftop PV not as an energy project but as a building upgrade. This structure matters. It ensures PV is treated not as an energy transaction but as a “capital improvement embedded in the building fabric”. You have to have the same vision as wifi 20 years ago. That distinction is what allows the investment to map onto valuation standards and investor logic.
It is a structured framework: technical, legal, financial. Aligned with tenant engagement and ESG, the landlord retains ownership, the tenant receives electricity that is provided as part of the lease service behind the meter, and the value is captured directly in the building itself.
Crucially, the electricity is not monetised. By avoiding the sale of power, landlords sidestep regulatory traps and REIT complications. Instead, tenants receive green electricity as part of occupancy, landlords secure Scope data, and the system is embedded as a “capital improvement”.
The structure is what unlocks blended value: jam today, more jam tomorrow
The core and starting point of the model is still explained in terms of “rentalisation”: landlords capture a base-case modest percent green-rent premium. This in alignment with tenant engagement of lower operation cost, renting a green, ESG-proof building and other commercial advantages. That remains the “jam today” of the model.
But as the method matured, particularly through collaboration with Colliers, its wider effects became clear. Because the system is structured as a building upgrade, it also delivers what both parties now describe as blended value built around the three pillars of capital appreciation:
● Rentalisation (Green Rent Premium): Jam today, immediate uplift, supported by the tenant.
● De-risking: Jam that is here. On-site renewable supply shields assets from energy price volatility, (future) carbon taxes, and retrofit liabilities. It keeps assets aligned with CRREM pathways and prevents regulatory stranding.
● Liquidity: Jam tomorrow. With broader buyer demand, yield compression, and access to sustainable finance, and supported by full Scope ESG data, assets become easier to trade and finance.
Together, these drivers form a “blended value model”. Sometimes rentalisation is strongest, sometimes liquidity or de-risking takes the lead – but in aggregate, the numbers are consistently positive. Or as one Colliers partner put it: “The numbers are always green.”
Why the timing has changed: valuation steps in
The timing could hardly be better. The 2025 RICS Red Book now makes ESG factors a mandatory part of valuation wherever they are material to value. CRREM pathways are already identifying assets that will become stranded unless their carbon intensity falls. SFDR reporting is exposing the data gaps that have long frustrated landlords and fund managers alike.
In this context, rooftop PV is no longer a “nice to have”. It has become the most immediate and measurable lever available to align assets with regulation and investor demand. The question, as Colliers and VerusSol argue, is no longer whether landlords will invest – but how.
When structured and implemented through the VerusSol Method, rooftop PV is reframed as a building upgrade rather than an energy project. The outcome is measurable performance and hard data across all ESG dimensions.
A building equipped with VerusSol delivers lower operating costs, avoids future retrofit liabilities, retains tenants, and provides transparent ESG reporting. These are no longer soft factors: they are direct valuation inputs.
RICS alignment: valuation now demands ESG
The 2025 update to the RICS Red Book makes it explicit: valuers must consider ESG factors where they are material to value. That shift changes the solar equation fundamentally. A building equipped with VerusSol delivers measurable benefits that valuers can recognise:
● Lower operating costs and improved EPCs.
● Avoidance of future retrofit liabilities.
● Scope 1–3 data to support ESG-linked financing assumptions.
● Stronger tenant demand and lower voids.
Together, these factors strengthen the case for lower yields and higher valuations. Importantly, the VerusSol Method provides the structured evidence valuers require – not replacing professional judgement but adding robust data.
For asset managers, the credibility of the model rests on valuation. Here, the 2025 RICS Red Book provides the decisive link.
● VPS 2 requires valuers to assess sustainability factors that are material to value. The VerusSol Method generates quantifiable inputs – tenant savings, carbon reduction, compliance alignment – that valuers can apply in their yield, risk, and income assumptions.
● VPS 3 demands transparency in reporting ESG assumptions. By embedding metered data and renewable generation into the building fabric, VerusSol creates a clear audit trail that strengthens valuation confidence and supports both SFDR and GRESB reporting.
The method does not tell valuers what conclusion to reach. Instead, it equips them with the structured evidence they now need. Together, these strengthen net operating income, reduce risk premiums, and improve liquidity – exactly the components that valuers are now required to consider. As RICS makes clear, ESG drivers can justify adjustments to yields and cap rates when supported by evidence. With VerusSol, that evidence is built into the building itself. In short: “valuation has become the jam of tomorrow”.
Colliers collaboration
For Colliers, the partnership with VerusSol is about setting a new standard for institutional real estate. Where many still treat solar as an energy sideline, Colliers sees the VerusSol Method® as a framework for asset enhancement, structured, professionalised, and scalable across European portfolios.
“Where many still see solar as an energy project, the VerusSol Method reframes it as asset enhancement,” says Andy Mercer, EMEA Head of ESG at Colliers. “Because it is structured as a building upgrade, it consistently supports capital appreciation, de-risking and liquidity. That is why we see this as the emerging model for on-site renewables.”
Together, Colliers and VerusSol are advancing proof-of-concept projects across Europe. The aim is to show investors how the method translates directly into de-risking, valuation uplift, tenant demand, and long-term liquidity.
For Colliers, the collaboration reflects a broader mission: helping clients decarbonise without sacrificing returns, by aligning asset management with regulatory and market shifts. For VerusSol, it provides a platform to demonstrate years of research and development in practice.
“Solar has too often been treated as an energy sideline,” says a Colliers representative. “The VerusSol Method embeds it into valuation logic and shows our clients how rooftops can enhance not distract from their core portfolios.”
From hesitation to the imperative investment
For institutional landlords, the conversation is shifting. Rooftops are no longer a peripheral issue, nor should they be judged on marginal IRR alone. Together with Colliers, VerusSol is bringing a new standard to the table: The paradox that kept them idle is being resolved.
When implemented through the VerusSol Method, rooftop PV is not a utility play but a valuation-relevant building upgrade. It delivers jam today through rentalisation, and jam tomorrow through de-risking and liquidity. In a market shaped by CRREM, SFDR, tenant demand, and the RICS Red Book 2025, the imperative investment will be green.
But it will only be value-accretive if it is structured. This is where VerusSol stands apart. The method has been developed, tested, and professionalised precisely to avoid the pitfalls that have derailed so many ad hoc or third-party schemes.
From technical design to legal structure and ESG alignment, the framework is complete, ensuring the outcome is always a stronger, more liquid, and future-proof asset. Procurement will always be done with an open-door principle, but always under our technical guidelines to ensure quality and warranty over the 25 years.
As Colliers and VerusSol argue, this is not something to improvise. A landlord may believe they can replicate it themselves, but without the structured method, the risks and inefficiencies soon outweigh the returns. The VerusSol Method exists to unburden the process, to align every stakeholder, and to ensure that what looks good on paper translates into lasting value on the balance sheet.
The opportunity is no longer hypothetical. The method is here, the structures are in place, and the pressure is mounting. The only question left is whether asset managers will seize it – with the right partners, and with the right method.
