Common Energy, a community solar provider, raised $16.5 million in funding from S2G Ventures, the direct investment team of Builders Vision.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand consumer access to local, community solar projects across the country, scale its energy management platform, and grow the management and operating teams.
“Renewable energy is the foundation for solving global climate change because abundant clean electricity enables all other decarbonization solutions,” said Richard Keiser, CEO and founder of Common Energy.
“This investment will enable Common Energy to accelerate our efforts to bring clean energy to more households and communities across the country and reduce greenhouse gas emissions further,” he added.
“Community solar is an important option for broadening access to clean and cost-effective renewable energy across the U.S., and we are excited to be supporting the Common Energy team as they deploy their sophisticated platform to accelerate the adoption of this resource,” said Dr. Francis O’Sullivan, Managing Director at S2G Ventures.
“Community solar plays a valuable part in the U.S.’ national energy strategy because it advances clean energy deployment to allow many households to promote solar energy while reducing energy costs,” said Dr. Ernest Moniz, U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Obama, and Common Energy advisor.
The U.S. community solar market is expected to continue to grow. In 2021, U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm announced a national goal of installing enough community solar capacity to power 5 million American homes by 2025, implying over 600% market growth.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report, total corporate funding – including venture capital (VC) funding, public market, and debt financing – into the solar sector in Q1 2022 came to $7.5 billion in 49 deals, a 51% increase compared to $5 billion raised in 32 deals in Q4 2021. However, funding was lower by 7% year-over-year (YoY) compared to Q1 2021.
