Solar corporate funding in 2016 falls by 64% - Mercom

Solar companies globally raised in 2016 just USD 9.1 billion (EUR 8.6bn) in corporate funding, including venture capital/private equity (VC/PE), debt financing, and public market financing.

This is down from USD 25.3 billion in 2015, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group. On a more positive note Raj Prabhu, CEO and co-founder, said that 2017 “looks better than expected as lower module prices are expected to boost installation levels”.

Details by Mercom on corporate funding are available in the table.

Solar downstream firms secured about 80% of the VC funding last year, or USD 985 million. Photovoltaic (PV) technology firms got about USD 97 million. Energy Access Ventures, Engie Rassembleurs d’Energies, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), KawiSafi Ventures, and Neo Solar Power were the top five investors.

US residential solar services provider Sunnova Energy Corp raised USD 300 million, marking the largest VC transaction for the year. Solar Mosaic’s USD-220-million agreement came second in terms of size.

Three solar companies completed initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2016 -- Thailand’s BCPG Plc (BKK:BCPG), India’s Azure Power Global Ltd (NYSE:AZRE), and Sweden-based solar hybrid system developer Ripasso Energy AB.

The Tesla/SolarCity (NASDAQ:TSLA) merger was the largest and most notable of the 68 corporate M&A transactions in 2016.

In the past year, 153 investors backed 5.9 GW of large-scale solar projects. Santander invested in eight projects, while Bpifrance, Natixis and NORD/LB invested in five each.

Mercom said there were 218 large-scale solar project acquisitions for over 12.2 GW. The consulting firm also tracked 133 large-scale project announcements globally in the fourth quarter of 2016 for 5.8 GW of capacity, and 826 project announcements totaling 40.4 GW for the full year.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.95)

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