Global investments in renewable energies exceeded $200 billion in 2013. However, this is only a small share of what is required for the transition to a global sustainable energy system. Substantial financial investments from the public and private sector are needed over the next decades. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is one of the most important energy technologies with the highest share of new power capacity added worldwide in 2013. Even though the costs of this technology have sharply declined, weakening policy support, especially in some European countries, exerts high pressure on PV project developers. They struggle to attain funding for their installations as banks and equity investors only cherry-pick projects of highest quality. Building on previous research in this area, we conducted a ratings-based conjoint experiment comprising 684 hypothetical project ratings made by 57 banks and equity investors mainly from Europe. Our preliminary results strengthen earlier findings that non-financial factors, such as PV module brand, play a significant role in project financing, whereas this ‘brand effect’ is stronger pronounced among equity investors than among banks.