Brief of diving:
-
The total corporate financing of world solar companies, including risk capital, the public market and debt funding, decreased by 41% year -on -year during the first quarter of 2025, while the financing of energy storage companies fell by 81%, according to Mercom Capital Group, a consulting firm.
-
The uncertainty, mainly around the fate of the Act of Reduction of Inflation and the credits of the renewable energy tax, but also around the rates and concerns of the supply chain, has prevented many financing offers from advancing so that negotiating parties cannot reliably calculate the potential returns, said Raj Prabhu, director general and co -founder.
-
If Congress does not soon signal a consensus on the fate of the IRA, the renewable energy industry could eventually bewildered as a specific recession in the sector “in the sense that the activity will stop due to uncertainty,” said Prabhu.
Divide vision:
Funding for solar companies, energy storage and smart networks fell essentially throughout the Council during the first quarter of 2025: a Prabhu result as expected after the election of President Donald Trump, but could be important if the trend continues in the long term.
Prabhu said that the investors’ interest in renewable energy had begun to refresh even before the November election together with Trump’s popularity. But the fall is not so much related to Trump’s specific positions, Prabhu said, as it is the general lack of certainty on how the key elements of US energy policy can ultimately be.
“Fusion and acquisitions can still occur, but funding is another agreement right now,” since investors and developers do not know Prabhu said that it will be difficult to import their teams and how much they can expect to receive in tax credits. “Yes, some venture capital offers may occur if you have a company with something really innovative. But next to the fire bids followed … the rest are waiting and see.”
World solar companies, except for Chinese -based companies, raised $ 4.8 billion during the first quarter, dropping down from $ 8.2 billion in the first quarter of 2024, but exceeded $ 4 billion raised in the last quarter of 2024, according to Mercom data. A single risk capital agreement of $ 1 billion caused the quarterly results, especially for risk investment, to reduce more than they appeared. Public market funding was only $ 20 million, a 99% decrease compared to the first 2024 months, said the firm.
The results for energy storage companies were similarly inclined by a single big deal, though in the opposite direction. The $ 5 billion collection of Northvolt increased in the first quarter of 2024 to bring $ 11.7 billion last year, compared to $ 2.2 billion raised by energy storage companies this year. Smart network companies saw that first quarter funding dropped by 23%, going from $ 686 million last year to $ 530 million this year.
These figures do not include the impact of the last rounds of rates announced, stopped and announced again in April, said Prabhu, so he hopes that the interest of investors in renewable energy will decrease further in the second quarter.
Prabhu said that the real world of renewable energy is still strong, but financiers cannot obtain the information they need to move forward with new offers. Tom Harper, the head of Baringa’s Global Consulting Firm, the North -American Energy Advisory Team, said that many private capital investors and infrastructure are still very interested in renewable energy assets and battery storage. Harper said that the appetite of smaller projects and projects that remain in the stages of development are reduced.
Harper said he talked to companies that planned to sell portfolios of projects of first phase in the first stage that they have not been able to do, causing them to reconsider the amount that they themselves are willing to continue to spend on these projects.
If the market does not receive greater clarity on the direction of U.S. politics in the coming months, the impact on renewable energy markets and the energy transition could be important, Prabhu he said.
