According to the latest semi-annual report released by the market research agency Mercom Capital Group, in the first half of this year, the total amount of corporate financing in the global solar energy sector reached 13.5 billion U.S. dollars, a 193% increase from the 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in the same period in 2020.

“Compared with last year, which was severely affected by COVID-19, investment in the solar energy sector increased across the board in the first half of this year,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group. “As global solar developers expand production scale, fossil energy such as oil and natural gas The company continues to transform into a renewable energy business, various funds have begun to purchase more renewable energy assets, and corporate acquisition activities in the solar field have also increased significantly."

In the second quarter of this year, the number of solar projects acquired reached a record high, with more than 24 GW of installed solar projects, compared with 14.6 GW in the first quarter, according to the report.

Raj Prabhu believes that investment trends in environmental, social and corporate governance have affected the acquisition of solar projects worldwide in the first half of this year.

According to the report, solar project developers and independent power generators were the most active acquirers in the second quarter of this year, with a total of 13.3 GW of solar projects; by oil and gas giants, with a total of 9 GW of solar projects.

In the first half of this year, solar open market financing also skyrocketed by 386%, with 13 transactions raising US$3.7 billion, compared to only 6 transactions in the same period in 2020, raising a total of US$758 million; venture capital financing An increase of 680%, a total of 26 transactions raised $1.6 billion, and in the first half of 2020, $210 million was raised for 14 transactions. At the same time, the solar-related debt financing activities announced in the first half of this year also increased by 125% over the same period last year.