Glut of solar deals shines light on clean tech investment recovery

Despite being hit by falling levels of private capital investment during the first quarter of this year, the clean tech sector appears be back on the up again following an encouraging second quarter performance and a recent flurry of high-profile deals.

According to an online survey undertaken by US executive search firm Polachi
among more than 100 clean tech managers and investors, confidence is fast returning with 90 per cent saying they expected growth to resume within a year or less, while almost a third believed that the turnaround had already kicked in during the second quarter of this year.

Three-quarters of respondents were also convinced that renewable energy-based industries were likely to become the key engine for economic growth over the next decade.

However, they also counselled that in the shorter term several factors remained that could inhibit growth, with more than half raising concerns over restricted flows of private capital, 47 per cent citing concerns over the economy, and a third arguing that high commodity prices could hamper the sector.

The results of the survey came as a flurry of solar energy deals over the past few days underlined the sense that a recovery is in progress.

San Francisco-based Renewable Ventures, which was formerly known as MMA Renewable Ventures and was bought by Spanish solar project developer Fotowatio last year, announced that it has just completed the financing of its $200 million Solar Fund V. The Fund, which is seen as a key engine for the organisation's growth in the US market, will finance the construction and acquisition of new US solar energy facilities that should generate about 35MW within a year.

The first construction project at a 15-acre photovoltaic site in Fort Collins, Colorado, is already scheduled to open this year and is expected to produce around 2MW of energy that will be sold to Colorado State University and state utility Xcel Energy as renewable energy credits.

Meanwhile, China-based Trina Solar, has confirmed that it has sold 4.5 million of its American Depository Receipt (ADR) shares in a bid to reduce debt and expand its manufacturing capabilities. The producer of photovoltaic modules, ingots, wafers and cells made $123.9 million from the transaction and aims to boost production capacity from 250MW of power generating kit in the middle of 2008 to 400 MW in future.

In June the company, which trades in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, secured a $57 million credit line from the Standard Chartered Bank of China to help it purchase raw materials, sign contracts and mitigate foreign exchange risks. Its aim in generating its new funding is to repurchase up to $30 million of convertible senior notes, which fall due in 2013.

The news came as Trina last week raised its second quarter unit shipment and gross margin forecasts because of what it described as improved conditions in the global solar market.

And in related news from Stuttgart, Germany's Bosch made an unsolicited bid to take a controlling 39.4 per cent stake in aleo solar. Bosch said its aim was to further build up its rooftop solar division by adding the company's mono-and multi-crystalline solar cells, which are manufactured in both Germany and Spain, to its portfolio. As a result, it proposed a €9 per share cash-for-stock transaction.

At the same time, Bosch also closed a deal to take a majority shareholding in thin-film solar module producer, Johanna Solar Technology. The firm, in which aleo owns a 17 per cent stake, is based in Brandenburg an der Havel in Germany. Aleo currently resells up to 80 per cent of its products following a distribution deal signed in 2007.