Solar Funding Saw Massive Growth In 2014

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Market intelligence firm Mercom Capital has published its findings for 2014’s solar funding analysis, and found that the sector saw massive growth over the year.

According to Mercom, total corporate funding for the solar industry, including venture capital, public market, and debt financing, totaled $26.6 billion in 2014, a growth of 175% year-over-year.

Specifically, solar venture capital funding in the fourth quarter came to $315 million across 16 deals, following on from the $326 million raised in the third quarter.

Over the year as a whole, global venture capital funding grew to $1.3 billion across 85 deals — that’s a massive increase on 2013 figures, which saw $612 million across 98 deals.

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Public market financing also encountered a record year, with $5.2 billion in 52 deals across the whole year, which was nearly double 2013’s $2.8 billion across 39 deals.

A phenomenal number of projects have been announced, funded, and initiated, with Mercom tracking 144 large-scale project funding deals exceeding $14.2 billion; 9.5 GW worth of new large-scale project announcements from 241 projects, bringing the yearly tally up to 34.4 GW worth of new large-scale project announcements; and several large-scale projects receiving significant funding:

Solar Top 5 Announced Large-Scale Projects Funded By Dollar Amount 2014

We’ll be expecting to see a number of reports coming out over the next month, including further recaps from analytic firms such as IHS and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. On top of that, I’ll be covering the fourth quarter earnings reports from a number of major companies across the solar industry (as well as wind), which will also include their full-year analysis.

By all accounts, 2014 was a rocky year for the solar industry, but one that might have finished off strong.