Total global corporate funding in the solar sector, including venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), debt financing, and public market financing raised by public companies in Q2 2014 stands at $6.3 billion, down 10 percent compared to $7 billion in Q1 2014, says Mercom Capital Group.
The solar market also saw two IPO’s including one yieldco and a securitization deal.
Global VC funding, including PE and corporate VC, in Q2 2014 totaled $432 million in 21 deals, up from $251 million in 26 deals in Q1 2014, mostly due to three large deals. According to Mercom, solar downstream companies attracted most of the VC funding this quarter, with $388 million in 10 deals.
PV once again accounted for all of the disclosed project acquisitions in the quarter, with 31 crystalline-silicon project acquisitions contributing a disclosed total of $229 million. There were nearly 1.1 GW of projects that changed hands in Q2 2014.
Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, said, “It was a solid quarter for the solar sector in terms of fundraising. VC funding was up, public markets remained strong and we are seeing new and innovative financial structures. Residential/commercial solar funds continue to raise record amounts.”
The Top 5 acquisitions by project size ranged from 50 MW to 180 MW. The largest transaction by MW was United Photovoltaics’ acquisition of the remaining 55 percent equity interest in Dinghui New Energy, which owns three solar projects located in Gonghe, Hainan, Qinghai Province, China, with an aggregate installed capacity of approximately 180 MW.