Corporate funding to solar sector grew 24% globally in 2020: Mercom Capital

Corporate funding to the solar sector globally, including venture capital (VC) private equity (PE) debt financing, and public market financing, totalled $14.5 billion in 2020 — a 24% increase compared to $11.7 billion in 2019, a Mercom Capital Group report said.

The clean energy communication and consulting firm said in its annual report that during the first half of the fiscal, corporate funding was down 25% year-on- year, but recovery has been swift and broad, with corporate funding up 24% for the year.

Publicly traded solar companies had an unprecedented year with solar ETF up 225% and 15 solar stocks up over 100% in the calendar year. Public market funding was also up with the help of several IPOs, and debt financing was up on the back of securitisation deals.