Solar continues to bathe in investor approval

The popularity of the solar sector appears to be undiminished by the recent financial turmoil, with two new deals underlining the extent to which investors are still willing to put their hands in their pockets to back the technology.

Soliant, a solar firm that focuses on solar concentrators, recently scored a major funding round from investors including GE. Meanwhile, a private equity firm consolidated two solar integrator companies to make what it says is the largest solar integrator in the north eastern US.

GE provided $2.5m (£1.4m) of a $21m group investment in Soliant, which changed its name from Practical Instruments in March last year.

Soliant, which is designing solar concentrator systems for installation on flat roofs, got $8m in Series A funding in 2006, and then received a $4m grant from the Department of Energy in September last year as part of the Solar America Initiative.

It plans to open a 40MW production plant and begin shipping production units late next year.

The move marks another of extension of GE's solar portfolio, following its acquisition of a controlling stake in thin film solar specialist PrimeStar Solar back in June.

While some are investing, others are acquiring. Private equity firm Riverside Partners has acquired and combined two solar companies to create what it says is the largest solar integrator in the northeast US.

The company purchased 28 year-old renewable energy systems integrator Solar Works, and residential solar energy firm SolarWrights for undisclosed sums.

The two companies have 2,000 solar installations and 110 employees between them. Almost half of Solar Works' installations are commercial, 30 per cent are residential, and quarter are in the educational sector.

SolarWrights had itself been on the acquisition path. In July this year it purchased Sunsearch, a solar integrator in Connecticut, and in January, it acquired Kosmo Solar. As late as this summer, SolarWrights vice president of business development had promised future acquisitions as a core part of the firm's strategy.