Click here to download the Executive Summary.

Total corporate funding, including venture capital (VC) funding, public market, and debt financing into the solar sector, increased 42% year-over-year (YoY) in 2023, with $34.3 billion raised in 160 deals, compared to $24.1 billion in 175 deals in 2022. This was the largest amount raised in over a decade.

“Investments into solar continue to defy expectations. Despite high-interest rates and challenging market conditions, corporate funding in the sector was the highest in a decade. Debt financing also hit a decade high, and venture capital investments and public market financing recorded the second-highest amounts since 2010. Driven by the Inflation Reduction Act, the global focus on energy security, and favorable policies worldwide, solar continues to attract significant investments,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

Global VC and private equity funding in the solar sector in 2023 came in strong with $6.9 billion, just 1% lower than the $7 billion raised in 2022. There were 26 VC funding deals of $100 million or more in 2023.

Public market financing in 2023 totaled $7.4 billion, 45% higher than the $5.1 billion in 2022.

In 2023, announced debt financing came to $20 billion, 67% higher compared to $12 billion in 2022 and the highest amount raised since 2010. Securitization activity was a key contributor, with $3.4 billion in 11 deals.

M&A activity declined 25% YoY with 96 corporate M&A transactions in 2023 compared to 128 in 2022. The largest transaction was by Brookfield Renewable, which agreed to acquire Duke Energy’s unregulated utility-scale commercial renewables business in the U.S. for approximately $2.8 billion.

There were 231 large-scale solar project acquisitions in 2023 compared to 268 acquisitions in 2022. In 2023, almost 45.4 GW of solar projects were acquired in 2023, compared to 66 GW in 2022 a 31% decline YoY.

There were 250 companies and investors covered in this report. It is 127 pages in length and contains 103 charts, graphs, and tables.

Mercom Capital Group’s Quarterly Solar Funding and M&A Reports are comprehensive high-quality reports delivering superior insight, market trends, and analysis. These reports help bring clarity to professionals in the current financial landscape of the solar industry.

Also available: 
Custom Excel Sheets with all transactions for the quarter, and
Custom Research with data from the past 5 years!
Contact us to learn more and get pricing!

Quarterly market and deal activity displayed in easy-to-digest charts, graphs, and tables, alongside data-driven analysis.

The report covers all types of deals and financing activity, including:

• Venture capital funding deals, including top investors, QoQ and YoY trends, and a breakdown of charts and graphs by technology, sector, stage, and country;
• Large-scale project funding deals, including top investors, QoQ and YoY trends and breakdown charts and graphs by technology and country;
• Public market financing, including equity financing, private placements, and rights issues;
• Debt and other funding deals, as well as QoQ and YoY trends;
• Third-party residential/commercial project funds;
• Large-scale project acquisitions and active project acquirers;
• Large-scale project announcements in various levels of development throughout the world;
• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A), including QoQ and YoY trends, a breakdown of charts and graphs by technology and sector, as well as project M&A activity;
• New cleantech and solar funds;
• New large-scale project announcements;
• Large-scale project costs per MW.

This report also contains comprehensive lists of all announced Q4:

• VC funding, debt financing, public equity financing, and project funding deals;
• VC and project funding investors;
• M&A transactions;
• Project acquisitions by amounts and megawatts;
• M&A, and project M&A transactions;
• Large-scale project announcements.

Mercom’s comprehensive report covers deals of all sizes across the globe. Have questions about the report? Email us here.