Stock markets pumped $1.3bn into solar in the last quarter

The latest corporate funding for solar figures compiled by Mercom Capital Group indicate a leap in public funding activity from July to September, helped by two of this year’s five solar IPOs.

The third quarter saw $1.3 billion pumped into solar on stock markets in five transactions. That activity ensures solar companies banked more than half the $2.25 billion received up to the end of September in the last three-month period alone.

And corporate solar investment was up across the board with total funding commitments of $9 billion to the end of September, compared with $6.7 billion for the same period of last year, with a third of this year’s backing generated in the third quarter.

Raj Prabhu, CEO of the Texan consultancy, noted a change in the destination in funding with more than $100 million of venture capital raised by solar technology and manufacturing firms, an outcome described as “rare” by Prabhu.

Big deals

More than $1 billion of solar assets have been securitized into stocks so far this year, says Mercom, and venture capital funding to the end of September has risen to the same figure, with $208 million of it committed across 11 deals in the last quarter. The $300 million raised by Indian renewables developer ReNew Power in July is the largest such deal so far this year but there has also been backing from investors for compatriot Avaada Energy (which raised $144 million), Dubai-based Yellow Door Energy ($65 million), London-based African pay-as-you-go solar company Bboxx ($50 million) and California’s Spruce Finance ($50 million).

Debt financing of $5.8 billion had been secured to the end of the third quarter, a 43% rise from the same period of last year, with 13 such deals worth more than $100 million in the latest three-month period. The biggest to date in 2019 was the $613 million raised by Powertis from local development banks BNDES and BNB for a 765 MW solar portfolio in Brazil.