Good Morning, here is this weeks overview
This Weeks News
📉 Solar Funding Drops to $10.8B in first half of 2025… But M&A Heats Up
Global solar sector funding dropped 39% year-over-year to $10.8B in the first half of 2025, according to Mercom Capital’s latest report. VC, public market, and debt activity all declined as developers and manufacturers were forced to recalibrate amid legislative shifts, trade volatility, and capital market uncertainty.
Why it matters: Despite the funding dip, M&A activity rose, with 50 corporate and project-level deals and over 100 project acquisitions. Investor appetite remains strong for discounted solar assets, especially from O&G firms and project developers acquiring GW-scale portfolios.
What’s next: The second half of 2025 will depend on how quickly the industry can adapt to new policy realities and unlock stalled capital. Recovery is not guaranteed, but value-hunting in solar M&A is clearly already happening.
Power Moves
🤝 Deals & Developments This Week
Enbridge Ceo Greg Ebel
☀️ Enbridge Commits $900 million to Texas Solar Project for Meta
Enbridge is investing US$900 million into a 600 MW solar project in San Antonio, Texas, with all output contracted to Meta. Known as Clear Fork, the project is already under construction and will begin service in summer 2027. This marks one of Enbridge’s largest solar investments to date and highlights the surging demand for clean power from tech giants as data centre growth accelerates.
🇩🇪 GIGA.GREEN Secures $35M Facility for German Rooftop Solar Expansion
German commercial solar firm GIGA.GREEN has closed a €30 million (USD $35 million) revolving capex facility with Austria’s Kommunalkredit Bank to scale its rooftop solar footprint across Germany. The facility will support the buildout of distributed solar systems on industrial rooftops, targeting mid-sized businesses seeking lower-cost, on-site renewables amid Europe’s volatile energy pricing..
⚡ Scala Closes $328M Project Finance Deal for Chilean Data Centres & Substation
Scala Data Centers has secured US$254 million in long-term project financing, bringing total funding to US$328 million for the construction of three hyperscale data centres and a major power substation in Chile. Backed by four global banks, this marks Latin America’s largest single-country data centre project finance deal to date. The new facilities will run on 100% certified renewable energy and add 53 MW of IT capacity, bolstering Chile’s role as a digital gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.
🚀 Tech Watch
MH500 unit yields approximately 500 kg of hydrogen per day onsite
🔥 Modern Hydrogen Is Decarbonizing Natural Gas at the Source (Pilot Deployment with CPS Energy)
Seattle-based Modern Hydrogen has launched a pilot with CPS Energy, San Antonio’s municipal utility, to deploy its MH500 methane pyrolysis unit. The system converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon onsite and uses a portion of the hydrogen produced to power the system itself. Each unit yields up to 500 kg of hydrogen daily, potentially blending into CPS Energy’s natural gas plants for low-carbon power generation.
Why it’s important: This pilot avoids the need for hydrogen pipelines by upgrading existing gas infrastructure. It’s a rare example of distributed pyrolysis tech moving from lab to grid-scale use with municipal support.
What’s next: CPS will evaluate how to integrate the hydrogen, likely at under 20% blend, while Modern Hydrogen eyes broader rollout. The startup counts Bill Gates, NextEra, and National Grid among its investors.
🌋 Fervo Energy Breaks Drilling Records with 500°F Geothermal Well
Fervo Energy has completed its hottest and deepest enhanced geothermal well to date, drilling 15,765 feet to reach projected bottomhole temperatures of 520°F, all in just 16 days. The Sugarloaf well sets multiple industry records, including a 79% reduction in drilling time versus DOE baselines and a rate of penetration exceeding 300 ft/hour. The results validate Fervo’s proprietary EGS design and could unlock over 5 GW of resource potential at its Cape Station site.
Why it’s important: This is a major leap forward for geothermal scalability. Fervo is proving that firm, carbon-free power can be tapped in deep, high-temperature reservoirs, expanding the commercial range of EGS far beyond the western U.S.
What’s next: With contracts in place with Shell Energy and Southern California Edison, and a third-party reserves report confirming 50–60% thermal recovery factors, Fervo is positioned to anchor geothermal as a core part of America’s baseload energy future.
⚛️ Avalanche Energy Secures $10M Grant for FusionWERX R&D Facility (Washington State)
Seattle-based fusion startup Avalanche Energy has landed a $10 million grant from Washington’s Green Jobs Program to build FusionWERX, a first-of-its-kind commercial fusion R&D hub in Richland, WA. The facility will provide shared infrastructure for universities, startups, and labs working on tritium-based fusion tech, with commissioning expected by late 2026. Avalanche’s compact fusion devices have already demonstrated operation at 300 kV, twice the voltage of lightning , and the startup has signed its first neutron customer in semiconductor manufacturing.
Why it’s important: FusionWERX fills a critical gap in the fusion ecosystem: safe, shared infrastructure for tritium handling and tech validation. It’s also a blueprint for regional clean-tech supply chain development, backed by public funding.
What’s next: Avalanche plans to raise a Series B of up to $100 million to scale its operations. Early MOUs are already in place with Kyoto Fusioneering, Canadian Nuclear Labs, and Washington State University.
🔋 Co-Power Raises €6.4M to Build Europe’s Industrial Virtual Power Plant (Seed Round)
Berlin-based Co-Power has secured €6.4 million (USD $7.3M) in seed funding led by Cherry Ventures, with participation from Abacon Capital, Aurum Impact, FlixFounders, and sector veterans. The startup installs and operates solar-plus-storage systems at industrial sites, cutting client energy costs by up to 50%, and monetizes excess power through grid trading. Co-Power now serves over 50 clients and aims to interconnect them into a pan-European virtual power plant.
Why it’s important: Behind-the-meter energy infrastructure is still highly fragmented in Europe. Co-Power’s model turns industrial sites into flexible energy nodes, and may evolve into a decentralized backbone for the continent’s clean grid.
What’s next: With Germany’s battery market forecast to hit €250B by 2030, Co-Power is expanding across the EU to build a federated energy-sharing network for industry.
