Watt&Co secures €60M in subordinated debt for solar and storage buildout
What's the deal? Watt&Co, a French renewable energy developer and independent power producer founded in 2009, has secured €60 million in subordinated debt financing. The funds came from Arkéa Euro Impact Transition Infrastructure Debt 2 and CIC Transition Infra Debt 2, with Tevali Partners facilitating the deal.
The capital will fund construction of 100 MWp of solar capacity and 50 MWh of energy storage. Watt&Co said the financing supports its strategy of retaining long-term ownership of operational assets.
Why now? Watt&Co has built a development portfolio encompassing 1.5 GW of renewable energy projects and 800 MWh of storage capacity. It has around 130 MW of assets in operation or under construction, with another 100 MWp entering the financing phase — making fresh capital essential to keep its pipeline moving.
The company, which employs over 100 people, has a 1.3 GWp solar pipeline dominated by agrivoltaics and ground-mounted installations (83% of its project mix), with rooftop projects at 15% and hydropower at 2%.
What could go wrong? Subordinated debt sits lower in the repayment hierarchy, meaning lenders take on more risk — and Watt&Co takes on a heavier obligation to deliver returns from projects still under development. Construction delays, permitting bottlenecks, or shifts in energy pricing could strain the economics.
Agrivoltaics, which combines solar panels with agricultural use, remains a relatively young sector with evolving regulations across France and Europe.
The signal: Watt&Co's classification as a "breakout stage" company on Dealroom underscores a broader pattern: mid-sized European renewable developers are increasingly turning to subordinated debt rather than equity to fund construction pipelines without ceding ownership. With 1.5 GW in development and a deliberate hold-to-own strategy, Watt&Co is betting that retaining long-term asset control — financed through infrastructure debt — will prove more valuable than faster, equity-fuelled growth as Europe races toward its 2030 clean energy targets.
Read more: WeDoAny
Image: Tobi Kellner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
