Energy Funding: IPOs, M&A, VC and grants for flow batteries, fuel cells, PV trackers and equitable access to solar

IPOs and other offerings

Solar tracker builder Array Technologies is going public on the Nasdaq exchange and has set its IPO terms. The company plans to raise $675 million by offering 33.8 million shares at a price range of $19 to $21 — giving it a fully-diluted market value of $2.5 billion, were it to price at the midpoint of the range. Array, headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the No. 2 global solar tracker maker, behind Nextracker and ahead of PV Hardware, according to Wood Mackenzie. Other tracker vendors include Soltec, Arctech, SolarSTI, GameChange Solar and Solar Steel.

Six takeaways from the IPO here. The deal is expected to price on Wednesday.

Spanish solar tracker manufacturer Soltec is finalizing an IPO with the aim of making its debut on the Spanish stock markets of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia to “raise capital to finance its business plan, strengthen its balance sheet and position itself before the expected growth of the photovoltaic industry.” Local lenders Banco Santander and CaixaBank will act as joint global coordinators and book-runners of an IPO which could raise up to $177 million and Soltec. Soltec wants to use the IPO income to finance growth and execute the business plan of the Powertis engineering, procurement and construction services subsidiary it created in 2004. Soltec and Powertis reported combined revenues of $423 million last year.

The IPO would be the first in the Spanish solar sector since late 2018, when developer Solarpack went public. Business intelligence company IHS Markit rates Soltec the world’s third-largest tracker supplier. From pv magazine Spain.

Norwegian floating PV specialist Ocean Sun is seeking a listing on the Merkur Market, a multilateral trading facility which has offered small and medium-sized companies access to the Oslo Stock Exchange since 2016. The company aims to raise $10.9 million through the IPO.

Ocean Sun’s design for floating PV projects at near-shore locations and in semi-sheltered waters consists of a floating buoyancy ring anchored to the seabed with four mooring points and twelve lines. In mid-July, the company signed a deal to develop pilot projects at the 2.1 GW floating solar site planned near the Saemangeum tidal flat, on the coast of the Yellow Sea.“We will normally take a small license fee per watt installed in each project,” said the CEO.  As per reporting in pv magazine.

Venture funding

Redaptive, a provider of energy efficiency retrofits for commercial and industrial sites, raised $156 million in a financing led by CarVal. Founded in 2013, Redaptive is an energy efficiency-as-a-service firm that performs retrofits and bills customers based on energy savings. Return investors include CBRE, Engie New Ventures, Evergy Ventures, and Linse Capital.

FuelCell Energy, a solid-oxide fuel cell builder, was selected by the U.S. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in collaboration with the Office of Nuclear Energy, for an $8 million funding award to support the design and manufacture of an electrolysis platform capable of producing of hydrogen. This project will be the first multi-stack electrolysis system produced with FCE’s solid oxide technology. The system will be equipped with an option to receive thermal energy,  increasing the electrolysis electrical efficiency to over 90%. The electrolysis system will be delivered to Idaho National Laboratories, where it will undergo testing, as well as the ability to utilize nuclear power plant waste heat.

The Department of Energy awarded $1 million to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) for research into pathways to make solar energy more accessible for low- and moderate-income (LMI) consumers and communities. NRECA’s three-year program, Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS), will research financing mechanisms, program designs and engagement strategies to equip electric cooperatives with the tools they need to successfully develop solar projects to benefit LMI consumers. “Solar energy is an integral part of the electric cooperative fuel mix, but it remains out of reach for many low-income consumers,” said Jim Spiers, senior VP at NRECA. “We’re excited to work towards solutions that address this challenge, particularly because electric co-ops often serve higher percentages of LMI consumers, including 92% of the nation’s persistent poverty counties. Source: NRECA

We recently reported on a federally funded program to bring market-based financing to one of solar’s decidedly underserved markets — community solar for low-income, multifamily affordable housing.