Total corporate funding including VC, debt, and other types of funding came to $915 million in Q2. Global solar installation projected to grow from 31GW in 2012 to 38 GW in 2013, according to Mercom Capital’s most recent quarterly solar funding report.
Although amounting to $189 million, VC deals dropped from 26 to 19 in Q2, reflecting a depressed market for solar technology. Solar downstream firms accounted for $128 million of the $189 million. For Q2, the Top 5 VC deals were: Hefei Golden Sun Energy Technology with $69 million; Clean Power Finance with $42 million; Solexel with $14.8 million; Tigo Energy’s with $13 million, and lastly Scifiniti with $10 million funding.
Downstream companies led VC funding by technology in Q2, accounting from $128 million, followed by PV’s $25 million, Thin Film’s $13 million, BOS’ $13 million, CSP’s $6 million, and CPV and Service Providers with $2 million each.
Q2 was the strongest quarter for residential and commercial solar lease project funds, with third party finance companies raising $1.33 billion, up from only $463 million in Q1.
In this quarter, Solar Star Funding offered a $1 billion of solar bond financing deal, the largest in history. Other relevant project funding were $260 million by SolarReserve, $206 debt and equity financing raised by Solairedirect, $199 million in project financing by Mitsubishi Corp and C-Tech Corp, and $197 millionin debt financing raised by Belectric Solarkraftwerke.
Loans, credit facilities, and other types of debt funds of Chinese banks raised $253 million in Q2, for a total of $53 billion since 2010.
Disclosed M&A Transactions amounted $1.27 billion in 18 transactions for Q2, up from $306 million in 15 transactions for Q1. The acquisition of Power-One by Swiss power and ABB was the largest disclosed transaction in Q2 ($1 billion). More than 670 MW of solar projects transactions took place in Q2.
To read more about Mercom’s report, click here