REPORT - Q1 solar corporate funding jumps to USD 3.2bn

The solar sector raised total of USD 3.2 billion (EUR 3bn) in corporate funding in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, including venture capital/private equity (VC/PE), debt and public market financing.

According to the latest report by Mercom Capital Group, corporate funding doubled quarter-on-quarter and grew by 15% year-on-year. The improvement was largely due to a rise in debt financing activity. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity was also strong, and solar public companies also had “a good first quarter”, said Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu.

Most of the VC funding in the quarter, or USD 548 million, was secured by solar downstream companies. That segment also led M&A activity with 20 of the 29 transaction in Q1 involving downstream firms.

Mercom also said there were 49 large-scale solar project acquisitions in January-March, down from 73 in the preceding quarter, and 50 a year before. About 7.4 GW of solar projects were acquired, including nearly 1 GW by yieldcos.

The clean energy consulting firm tracked 233 large-scale project announcements globally in the quarter for a combined capacity of 12.7 GW.

The full report can be found here.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.94)

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