Green Dealflow's transaction activity report for the second quarter of 2017 puts USA at the top of both wind and solar deal flow over the period.
Below is a short overview by Steven Young, business analyst at the online marketplace for wind and solar projects. The report is built from Green Dealflow’s transaction database which tracks equity transactions of solar and wind projects around the globe.
SOLAR
In the solar industry, the report records 49 transactions amounting to approximately 4.5 GW. The number of deals is identical to the previous quarter, but the megawatt transacted has decreased by approximately 3 GW due to the absence of mega project transactions. Unlike the previous quarter, when the deal flow was heavily dominated by construction phase assets, the deal flow for Q2 is more evenly allocated across the asset phases because since no mega projects shifted ownership to skew the deal flow towards a certain phase.
Looking at the deal flow chart by country, the United States again tops the list in terms of both number of deals and amount of megawatt transacted.
WIND
In the wind energy industry, the number of deals has fallen from 62 in the first quarter to 38 in the second and likewise experienced a drop in gigawatt transacted from approximately 12.6 GW in the first quarter to approximately 8 GW in the second. Despite the lower number of transactions, the figures illustrate the considerable difference in project size between solar and wind projects. From April till June, we have seen two mega project transactions—Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ acquisition of three offshore wind farms in Taiwan from Fuhai Wind Farm Corporation totaling 1.5 GW, as well as Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ divestment of the Vineyard Wind Project in the United States totaling 1 GW, also under development. Consequently, the wind asset deal flow in Q2 is dominated by the development phase.
Just like the solar asset deal flow, the United States dominates the wind asset deal flow as well, followed by Taiwan and Brazil, in terms of megawatt transacted.
BUYERS & SELLERS
Over the period in review, the most active buyers in solar, in terms of number of deals agreed, were London-listed NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd (LON:NESF), independent solar power producer Sonnedix, which is majority owned by institutional investors advised by JP Morgan Asset Management, and Dominion Energy, a unit of US energy provider Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE:D).
Private equity investor ECOSolar topped the list of sellers in terms of capacity sold, followed by US renewables yieldco TerraForm Power Inc (NASDAQ:TERP) and India-based Hindustan Powerprojects Pvt Ltd.
In wind power, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S (CIP) was in the top three of both buyers and sellers in terms of capacity while UK buyout firm Actis LLP was the most active buyer in terms of number of deals agreed.
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Graphic by Green Dealflow, 2017 Q2 Transactions Review. All rights reserved.
