Corporate solar financing more than doubles to US$11.1 billion in Q1 2026

The graph below shows how number of deals and total corporate investment into solar has changed in the last five years, with the first quarter of 2026 a record period for both metrics. The majority of the financing in the first quarter of 2026 came from debt financing, which totalled US$8.9 billion across 28 deals, more than double the US$3.4 billion raised in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the US$3.5 billion raised in the first quarter of 2025.

The first quarter of this year also saw an increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&As), with 28 such deals completed, compared to 21 in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 19 in the first quarter of last year. Earlier this year, the RES Group’s Ksenia Dray wrote a piece for PV Tech in which she argued that “there is no shortage of capital and no shortage of targets” in the European M&A space in particular, although there has been a lack of “execution certainty” in dealmaking.

Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, said that the global conditions in the first quarter were ripe for “larger transactions”, particularly for debt financing.

“Improved policy clarity and strong demand led to an increase in solar funding and M&A activity in Q1 2026,” said Prabhu. “Corporate funding was driven by larger transactions, particularly in debt financing, which reached its highest level in over a decade, while solar project acquisitions were at their highest capacity since 2022.”

The largest growth figure reported by Mercom is in the public market financing sector. While market financing accounted for US$1.1 billion in the first quarter of this year—significantly less than that which was raised through debt—this figure is a huge 5,485% increase from the first quarter of 2025, showing how market investment in solar has increased dramatically over the last year. This would be an encouraging development for European solar in particular, which, according to SolarPower Europe, saw an increased reliance on government auctions, rather than private investment, to finance new solar project deployment in 2025.

Investors focus on ‘near-term’ projects

Questions remain, however, as to whether this growth is sustainable, as Prabhu said that investors are keen to secure assets “that can advance in the near term”.

Prabhu also made reference to the “accelerated timelines of tax credit milestones” as a driving force behind the signing of deals in the short term while these tax credits are still available; while he didn’t specify a market where this is taking place, he is likely referring to the US, where the Trump administration has introduced a degree of urgency for solar project development by shortening the timeframes for a number of Biden-era tax credits.

“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,” explained Prabhu.

However, the general trend remains positive. The number of large-scale projects to have changed hands increased from 63 in the first quarter of 2025 to 75 in the first quarter of 2026; and the total capacity of projects acquired increased from 13.6GW to 18.4GW over the same period. As a result, solar project finance and dealmaking remained strong in the first quarter of this year, despite concerns as to the long-term economic conditions in which deals will be struck.

Leaders in the European renewable energy finance sector are turning their attention to this month’s Renewables Procurement & Revenue Summit, to be held from 20-21 May in London. Hosted by PV Tech publisher Solar Media, the event will cover PPA design, tackling high energy prices and more; for more information, including the full agenda and ticket options, visit the event website.