New energy firm Qingdian Group’s photovoltaic arm Qingdian Guangfu Keji has bagged 1.5 billion yuan ($213.1 million) in a Series A funding round led by state-affiliated investors Hefei Industry Investment Group, and Beijing Energy Holding.
Local venture capital firms including Broad River Capital and Shenzhen DG Capital Management joined the round, alongside Shanghai-listed Sany Renewable Energy (aka Sany Heavy Energy), according to a statement by the deal’s financial advisor Tuofeng Capital earlier this week.
Founded in 2016, Beijing-based Qingdian Group engages in the construction, operation, and management of renewable-energy power plants across the country. The photovoltaic arm was established in 2020, as the firm ventured into the solar energy space.
Most recently, the firm commenced the construction of an industrial park in Hami in Eastern Xinjiang in 2022 that specialises in the production of monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, as well as industrial grade silicone, which are key components of solar panels. With a 10 gigawatts production capacity, the first phase of monocrystalline silicon wafer production is set to kick off in July this year, the firm said in the release.
The firm plans to use the fresh proceeds to support the construction and operation of its production facilities, Zhang Jujun, founder and chairman of Qingdian Group said in the release. Zhang added that the photovoltaic arm will start its Series B equity and debt financing round depending on the project’s progress and capital needs.
China’s goal of turning carbon neutral before 2060, has prompted companies across the renewable energy, waste recycling, and energy management sectors to ride on the cleantech bandwagon.
Xi’an-headquartered JD Energy raised 700 million yuan ($99.8 million) in a Series B round earlier this month led by Goldstone Investment, a subsidiary of China’s largest brokerage Citic Securities.
Although renewable energy firms in the Greater China region only completed a total of 10 deals worth $1 billion in Q1, energy storage firms, which helped accelerate the cleantech transition, closed a total of 51 deals worth $1.2 billion, according to DealStreetAsia’s proprietary data.