Clean Tech Sector Benefits From Uptick in Finance Activity Globally

Clean energy companies around the world are announcing initial public offerings and new rounds of investment to finance growth. 

These new financing announcements indicate a recovering global equity market and growing confidence in the clean energy sector.

California-based smart grid company Silver Spring Networks Inc. announced an initial public offering (IPO) planned for midyear.  The IPO will be underwritten by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Jefferies & Co (NYSE:JEF).  Silver Spring already boasts about $250 million in investments, including backing from Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, whose portfolio also includes the recently hyped Bloom Energy.

New Hampshire’s GT Solar (Nasdaq:SOLR) has announced a secondary offering of 25 million shares on the heels of about $200 million in new contracts.  The secondary offering is expected to raise another $150 million for the photovoltaic solar company.

Heading south to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Renova Energia SA recently filed a prospectus for its IPO, which could raise up to $480 million.  In December 2008, Renova decided to cancel an initial public offering in light of the global economic crisis.  The sale will be managed by Banco Santander (Brasil) SA and Banco Merrill Lynch de Investimentos SA with trading beginning on March 19. Renova Energia generates renewable electricity, mainly through small-scale hydroelectric and wind.

China’s wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel Wind Co., Ltd. hopes to raise $513 million through an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Sinovel is the world’s seventh largest wind turbine manufacturer and China’s biggest. 

Also in China, Prudent Energy Inc. - manufacturer of the Vanadium Redox Battery Energy Storage System - has raised approximately $22 million in Series C preferred shares. This round of funding was led by Northern Light Venture Capital, new investor Sequoia Capital China and two investors from the prior round, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and DT Capital Partners. Prudent Energy will use the new financing to support its manufacturing operations, which relocated to Beijing last year when it was bought from Vancouver, Canada-based VRB Power Systems.

Driven by a recovery in stock and energy prices, the increased activity in initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and Series C preferred shares in the clean energy sector is a trend that analysts anticipate to hold strong for the foreseeable future.