SUN COMING BACK

Solar VC Investments Rose Slightly Last Year Following Worst Of Recession

"Venture capital (VC) investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the solar sector - as well as the wind energy sector and the smart-grid sector - improved slightly last year over 2009's numbers, according to [Solar Funding and M&A 2010 Report] from Mercom Capital Group LLC, a global clean energy market intelligence, consulting and communications firm…

"For the solar market, total 2010 VC activity came in at $1.67 billion invested in 65 transactions, up 18% over 2009's numbers ($1.4 billion). There was increased activity in large-scale solar project funding, as well as debt and other funding types, pointing to an ease in the availability of credit after a challenging 2009, the report says."

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"A total of 148 different investors participated in VC funding rounds last year. Credit facilities provided to Chinese companies by Chinese banks came in at $34 billion, dwarfing all other transactions in solar…Solar M&A transactions in 2010 totaled $2 billion, with 44 deals. Solar project M&A activity amounted to another $450 million in 18 deals…

"Large-scale project funding came in at $4.1 billion in 2010, while debt and other funding types logged in $36 billion, of which $34 billion were in the form of credit facilities provided by Chinese government banks to Chinese companies, including LDK Solar, Yingli Solar, JA Solar, Suntech and Trina Solar…Notable VC transactions for the solar sector in 2010 included BrightSource Energy…Solyndra…and Amonix…Important project funding transactions included Torresol Energy…[for] concentrating solar power (CSP) plants…Abengoa Solar and JGC Corp. for a CSP plant…SunPower for its…Solar Ranch project…and Abengoa Solar and ITOCHU Corp. for their CSP plant…"

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"The year's top five investors in solar included Good Energies, New Enterprise Associates, Applied Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Polaris Venture Partners. Project funding investments were led by Mizuho Corporate Bank, Natixis, Unicredit Group, BNP Paribas and Centrobanca…Among the top M&A transactions…[were] the acquisition of Etimex Solar by Solutia for $326 million - followed by Recurrent Energy by Sharp Corp. for $305 million - leads the list, closely followed by NextLight Renewable Power by First Solar for $285 million and SunRay by SunPower for $277 million…

"At $669 million, there was a surge in M&A activity during the fourth quarter, compared to $586 million in the third quarter…Significant M&A transactions included the acquisition of Glory Silicon Technology Investments (Hong Kong Lts.) by Suntech Power Holdings for $127 million and the acquisition of Sino Light Investments by Solargiga Energy Holdings for $108 million."