Solar markets see increase in total funding in first half of 2017

In spite of some uncertainties in the solar market, overall corporate funding in the industry, including venture capital (VC) funding, debt funding and public market financing, reached $4.6 billion over the first half of the year, up from $4.5 billion in 2016, but also dropped from $3.2 billion in 60 deals in the first quarter to $1.4 billion in 37 deals in the second quarter.

In terms of global VC funding, which includes private equity and corporate venture capital, the 1H figure rose to $713 million up from $579 million in the first half of 2016, mostly due to the first quarter statistics when VC funding reached $585 million in 22 deals.

Furthermore, the most prominent deals in the first half of the year were the ones seen in Q1, including the $200 million raised by ReNew Power Ventures, Greenko Energy Holdings following on $155 million, Hero Future Energies with the third-largest deal of $125 million, and Silicon Ranch’s $55 million. In Q2, the biggest amount raised was $25 million in two separate deals by Siva power and Spruce, as seen in Solar Fact Sheet released by Mercom Capital Group.

In Q2 2017, downstream companies continued to attract the bulk of VC funds amounting to $92 million in 15 deals, followed by $25 million in one deal for thin- film.

Debt financing claimed a major share of the 1 H transaction volume, with $ 3 billion in 33 deals, down from $3.7 billion in 31 deals.

Mercom’s public market financing figures for the first half of the year showed a dramatic increase to $934 million in 19 deals from only nine deals in 1 H 2016 amounting to $276 million.

Announced large-scale project funding in the first half of 2017 amounted to $7.4 billion in 81 deals, which is a sizable increase on $4.9 billion in 64 deals in 1H 2016. Meanwhile, the residential and commercial sectors solar funding activity soared worldwide reaching $1.2 billion in the second quarter, up from $630 million in the first three months of 2017.

M&A activity amounted to 40 transactions worth $5.2 billion, largely due to the Q1 transactions totaling $4.7 billion, markedly rising from $23 million in 30 transactions in the first half of 2016.