Mercom Capital Group, llc, a global communications and consulting firm, today released its report on funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for the wind sector during the second quarter of 2012.

Global Venture Capital (VC) funding in the second quarter of 2012 amounted to just $17 million in three deals compared to a strong first quarter where $240 million went into 12 deals. The Top VC deal this quarter was the $9.8 million raised by India’s ReGen Powertech, a manufacturer of wind turbines.

Announced large-scale project funding in Q2 2012 totaled $5.4 billion in 23 deals. Of that, $4 billion went to onshore projects and $1.4 billion went to offshore projects.The top announced large-scale project funding deal this quarter was the $741 million raised by Colruyt for its 216 MW Northwind offshore wind farm, followed by $662 million raised by Lincs Wind Farm Limited for its 270 MW offshore wind farm, and $650 million raised by Terra-Gen Power for its 300 MW Alta Wind VII & IX wind projects. Other top project funding deals included $444 million raised by Invenergy for its 200 MW California Ridge Wind Energy Project, and $379 million raised by Iberdrola and Neoenergia for 10 wind farms totaling 288 MW. Also on the list was India’s Beta Wind Farm, which raised $50 million by Nordic Investment and AXIS Bank for seven wind turbine parks in India. Five of the seven units are being constructed in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the remaining two units will be built in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Large-scale project funding investors with multiple deals this quarter included BNDES, KfW IPEX-Bank, Union Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BayernLB, EBRD, Lloyds, Rabobank and Santander.

Corporate Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity in Q2 2012 amounted to $93 million in five transactions compared to $872 million in 11 transactions in Q1 2012. The $60 million acquisition of Suzlon (Suzlon Energy Tianjin Limited), a wind turbine manufacturer, by China Power New Energy Development Co. (CPNE) was the top M&A transaction for the quarter.

There were 17 project M&As announced in Q2 2012 amounting to $705 million in six disclosed transactions. Top project M&A transactions were the $301 million acquisition of Agaoglu Group’s two wind farms (126 MW) by Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holding, and the $174 million acquisition of AGL Energy’s Hallett 5 wind farm (52.5 MW) by Eurus Energy. Other top transactions included the $85.5 million acquisition of a 49 percent stake in each of four AES Corporation wind farms (120 MW) by Sembcorp, the $62 million acquisition of the Dobrich wind farm (40 MW) by LUKERG Bulgaria, and the $42 million acquisition of AES Southern Europe Holdings’ St. Patrick wind farm and three InnoVent projects by Boralex (90.5 MW).