HowSunExchangeistransformingsolarenergywithpurposedriveninvesting

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Show notes

This episode gives an entrepreneur’s perspective of renewable energy disruption.  Abraham Cambridge is the Founder and CEO of Sun Exchange – a peer-to-peer, solar panel, micro leasing platform. Founded in 2015 it now generates over 1 Gigawatt hours of energy via solar. During this conversation we explore the Sun Exchange business model, why and how they are using Bitcoin, as well as some useful facts and figures on the current energy grid in South Africa. Don’t miss out and remember to subscribe for more.

Episode summary

Sun Exchange effectively allows one person to lease a solar panel directly to another person somewhere else in the world. As an example, a school in South Africa does not need to have the capital to fund its own solar installation. Instead funding can come from a third party (someone in London say) and the school can then simply pay the third party for use of the panel. The school then effectively get electricity at rates below Eskom’s and the third party invests in solar without the need to have their own roof space.

The minimum investment size is about ZAR60-80 for an individual solar cell. Some people are even using this model to generate annuity income. Others see it as a social good and even donate the revenue to a charity. This trend of investing for social good is emerging with millennials and generation Z. Sun Exchange uses Bitcoin as the transfer mechanism given its ability to move small amounts of money globally without much cost.

 Sun Exchange is also a market maker between three parties: people looking to go solar, financiers and solar installers. Energy usage is measured in kilowatt hours ie. how many kilowatts used per hour. Sun Exchange has produced over 1 gigawatt hours ie. 1,000,000 kilowatt hours. A household in the UK typically uses 4 000 kilowatt hours per year. The schools that Sun Exchange has deployed with, is able to meet about 50% of their power need through solar, while the remaining comes from the grid. Solar panels are one tenth of the price they were a decade ago. Battery storage is also reducing as the technology matures.

 The main motivation to use Sun Exchange today is to lower current energy costs. It is possible to produce one unit of energy via solar at 25% of the cost of doing so via coal. All of Sun Exchange’s power creation is efficient as it’s positioned before the grid – not pushing energy into the grid. Abraham believes that SA as a whole can be completely solar powered by 2030.