From: Mercom Capital Group

Here are some of the important funding and M&A updates of last week from the global renewable energy industry:

Mumbai-based early-stage VC Unicorn India Ventures has announced its fourth investment in Probus Smart Things. Probus is an IoT (Internet of Things) enabled Smart grid automation startup. Probus develops integrated hardware and software solutions for utility providers. The company has raised an undisclosed seed round from Unicorn India, which will be used for scaling up the platform and entering new geographies.

ChargePoint, an open electric vehicle charging network provider, announced that it had closed $127 million in incremental equity financing. The funds will accelerate the expansion of ChargePoint’s global commercial and fleet businesses, supporting the world’s transition to electric mobility.

Thailand-based BCPG Public Company signed a shareholders agreement with Eternity Power Public Company to acquire 99.99% shares in RPV Energy Company, an operator of four solar power plants in Thailand. The total capacity of these projects is 20 MW. The four solar projects, which have already started commercial operations, consist of a 5 MW solar project in Lopburi province, a 5 MW solar project in Prachin Buri province, and two solar projects, with a total production capacity of 10 MW, in Kanchanaburi province.

Genex Power has signed a $25 million share subscription agreement with J-POWER, as part of a restructuring of the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project’s financing. Under this new agreement, the majority of the terms from the original deal remain in place, but it adds a conditional agreement allowing J-POWER to invest $25 million in Genex.

40 North Ventures announced that it acquired investments in eleven companies from GE Ventures’ portfolio. 40 North Ventures is an early-to-growth stage venture capital fund focused on technology investments in the industrial sector. The new portfolio companies are providers of advanced manufacturing and engineering, vehicle electrification, and distributed energy, among others.

Chevron USA and Algonquin Power & Utilities announced an agreement seeking to codevelop renewable power projects that will provide electricity to strategic assets across Chevron’s global portfolio. Under the four-year agreement, Chevron plans to generate more than 500 MW of its existing and future electricity demand from renewable sources. The projects will be focused on powering Chevron’s operations in the U.S. Permian Basin (Texas and New Mexico), Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Western Australia. Projects will be jointly owned and co-developed by both parties.

Sonnedix Japan completed a JPY 2.4 billion (~$22.65 million) project financing led by Iyo Bank. The financing covers two operational solar PV projects acquired earlier this year in the Shimane prefecture totaling 5.5 MW. Both are ground-mounted projects and have been in operation since 2018.

UBS-AM has acquired a 14.4 MW operating portfolio of solar PV assets and a 4 MW biogas portfolio from the affiliates of Econergy Renewable Energy and funds managed by Econergy’s partner, RGreen Invest. It has also secured an option to acquire another 22 MW of operating solar PV assets. Also, UBS-AM has formed a new exclusive partnership with Econergy for the construction and operation of a 1.1 GW solar PV and wind pipeline in Italy.

Insolight, a developer of concentrated photovoltaics, raised CHF5 million (~$5.47 million) in Series A round of funding. The funding was raised from investiere.ch, Zurcher Kantonalbank, Swiss Immo Lab, and several private business angels. This financing will enable Insolight to start producing and selling the modules, and the company said that it intends to sell these to large solar energy corporates for applications in agrivoltaics.

Soltage, an independent power producer and Basalt Infrastructure Partners, announced its investment in a 28 MW solar portfolio. The investment was funded by the Helios investment vehicle that the partners created to own and operate solar assets. The portfolio includes ten solar projects located in New Jersey, Illinois, and South Carolina. All projects are under construction and will be placed in service in 2020 and 2021. According to the company, this investment would bring Soltage’s total project capacity under construction in 2020 to over 100 MW.

Palmetto, the developer of a real-time energy consumption monitoring tool, announced that it had completed a $29 million Series B raise. Investors from a wide range of sectors, including energy, financial technology, and software, participated in the capital round. The company said that the raised capital would be used for team growth, focusing on R&D, software, data science, and building customer services.

Zinc8 Energy Solutions, a zinc-air flow battery company, announced a non-brokered private placement of up to 8,750,000 units at a price of $0.16/unit, for gross proceeds of up to $1,400,000.

Bloom Energy, a manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cell technology products, announced the pricing of its offering of $200 million aggregate principal amount of 2.50% green convertible senior notes due 2025 in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers. The offering size was increased from the previously announced offering size of $135 million aggregate principal amount of notes.

Q CELLS announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire a 100% stake in Growing Energy Labs, Inc. (Geli). Geli is a San-Francisco-based software and business solutions provider for designing, automating, and managing energy storage systems. The combined capabilities would help provide smart energy storage solutions to the customers.

Anesco announced that it completed the sale of Clayhill, UK’s first solar farm developed free from government subsidy. The project has been sold to GRIDSERVE, a critical power infrastructure solutions provider, for an undisclosed amount. According to the company, the project consists of 10 MW of solar PV co-located with a 6 MW of energy storage facility and generates enough electricity for around 2,500 homes while saving around 4,500 tons of carbon annually.

United Kingdom-based SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust announced that it has entered into an agreement with Electric Vehicle Network Limited to acquire 112 rapid and ultra-fast EV charging stations across the UK for a total consideration of up to £50 million (~$65.5 million). The construction period for each project is expected to be around 6 -12 weeks. This project represents the company’s first project in the EV charging infrastructure.

First Solar has entered into a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement with NovaSource Power Services, a portfolio company of Toronto-based private equity firm Clairvest Group. Under the agreement, NovaSource will acquire First Solar’s North American operations and maintenance business. After the closing of the transaction, approximately 220 First Solar O&M associates are expected to be transferred with the acquired business. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of 2020.

Invenergy and CoBank announced the completion of construction financing for two solar projects totaling 100 MW. CoBank acted as sole lead arranger and administrative agent for the financing, which includes a construction loan, letter of credit facility, and back-leverage term loan. Located in Crook County, Oregon, Prineville and Millican projects are currently under construction and scheduled to be operational at the end of 2020.

European Energy, a solar project developer, has secured €96.5 million (~$114.5 million) from Natixis for its Apulian solar project totaling 121.5 MW in Italy. The project is divided into three sections, and the first one was brought online in November 2019.

For more information on funding and M&A transactions in solar, energy storage, smart grid, and efficiency sectors click here.

Read last week’s funding roundup here.