Venture capital funding in the wind energy sector was off to a strong start in the first quarter of the year.
The sector saw $240 million going into 12 deals compared with just $12 million going into two deals last quarter, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm.
Top VC deals in the first quarter included $183 million raised by Element Power, a global project developer, and $20.2-million by ReGen Powertech, a turnkey solution provider and wind turbine manufacturer.
Other top transactions included $18.6 million by project developer Leap Green Energy, $10 million by Apex Wind Energy, a developer of commercial scale wind facilities, and $3.5 million by Pentalum, a developer of Wind LiDAR for remote wind sensing, according to the report.
M&A activity for the wind sector was also strong in terms of transactions, since Q1 2010 with $872 million in 11 transactions.
Top M&A deals
According to the report, the top M&A deals were the $850 million acquisition of Seajacks International, a UK-based offshore Wind Power Service provider, by Marubeni Corporation and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the $12 million acquisition of Fuji Heavy Industries’ Wind Turbine Generator Business by Hitachi, and the $10.2 million acquisition of a 49.9 per cent stake in OWEC Tower, an offshore wind turbine foundation designer.