The total global corporate funding for the solar sector reached $11.1 billion across 53 deals in Q1 2026, according to Mercom Capital Group
Debt financing hit a decade-high at $8.9 billion, driving overall growth in the space
M&A activity also increased, with 18.4 GW of solar projects changing hands
Global corporate funding in the solar sector rose sharply in Q1 2026, reaching $11.1 billion across 53 deals. This is an increase of 131% compared to $4.8 billion raised through 39 deals in Q1 2025, says Mercom Capital Group (see Q1 2025 Global Solar Corporate Funding Drops 41% YoY).
Funding also climbed 127% from the previous quarter, when $4.9 billion was recorded across 48 deals in Q4 2025. Mercom says that the increase was driven by clearer policy signals and strong market demand, which supported higher investment and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.
Larger transactions, particularly in debt financing, played a key role, with debt funding reaching its highest level in more than a decade. Solar project acquisitions also hit their highest capacity since 2022, reflecting growing interest in scaling up portfolios. Investors continued to focus on projects that can move forward in the near term.
“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. M&A activity continued to reflect demand for pipeline and scale across the sector,” said Mercom Capital Group CEO Raj Prabhu.
Global venture capital (VC) funding in the solar sector totaled $1.1 billion across 17 deals in Q1 2026. This represents a 21% decline compared to $1.4 billion raised in 14 deals a year earlier. However, VC funding rebounded on a quarterly basis, rising 74% from $606 million raised across 20 deals in Q4 2025.
Of the total, 51% went to solar downstream companies, totaling $543 million across 10 deals. The top deal in this category during the quarter was a $343 million investment in Inox Clean Energy.
Public market financing saw significant improvement with $1.1 billion raised across 8 deals, compared to $20 million from 2 deals in Q1 2025.
Debt financing of $8.9 billion across 28 deals was up 154% year-on-year (YoY) from $3.5 billion in 23 deals a year ago, and 162% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from $3.4 billion across 20 deals, according to the report.
During the reporting quarter, there were a total of 28 corporate M&A transactions, up 47% from 19 and 21 transactions in Q1 2025 and Q4 2025, respectively. Major activity was led by solar downstream companies. A total of around 18.4 GW solar projects changed hands in Q1 2026 (Q1 2025: 13.6 GW; Q4 2025: 8.4 GW).
The complete report, titled Q1 2026 Annual Solar Funding and M&A Report, can be purchased on Mercom’s website with prices starting from $299.
