Solar sector debt financing reached $12.39 billion (USD 8.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2026 – the highest level in more than a decade – while project acquisitions hit 18.4 GW, the most since 2022, according to Mercom Capital Group’s latest quarterly funding and mergers and acquisitions report.
Debt financing drove the quarter, reaching USD 8.9 billion across 28 deals – the highest level in more than 10 years, the United States-based research firm said. Venture capital funding totaled USD 1.1 billion across 17 deals, down 21% year over year, while public market financing reached USD 1.1 billion across eight deals.
The five largest VC-funded companies in the quarter were Inox Clean Energy at USD 343 million, Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions at USD 165 million, Amarenco at USD 150 million, GREW Solar at USD 118 million, and Radiance Renewables at USD 100 million.
Solar project acquisitions totaled 18.4 GW – the highest capacity since 2022. Developers and independent power producers accounted for 11.9 GW of acquisitions, followed by investment firms and infrastructure funds at 3.8 GW. Utilities acquired 830 MW. The quarter included 28 corporate mergers and acquisitions transactions.
“Improved policy clarity and strong demand led to an increase in solar funding and M&A activity in Q1 2026,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group. “Investments remained focused on assets that can advance in the near term, as projects moved forward following earlier policy and financing uncertainty, and developers accelerated timelines ahead of tax credit milestones.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.