An investor, and Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS) old boy, used Bitcoin to buy a solar system worth R2.8 million for the school. PBHS was crowdsourcing a solar PV system through the Sun Exchange platform, which enables organisations such as schools and businesses to get access to solar energy systems for no upfront capital cost.
The platform allows any individual or corporation to buy and earn income from solar cells to power projects in Southern Africa. Solar cell purchases can be made in Bitcoin or standard currency.
Sun Exchange levies a R1.21 per kilowatt hour fee from customers and passes on a R0.88 per kilowatt hour return to cell owners after their service fee and insurance is deducted.
Greg Hassenkamp, the headmaster of PBHS, said that having the solar system would reduce the school’s energy costs. “Clean energy will benefit our entire campus, including our classrooms, laboratories, and special venues. At the same time the project will reduce our energy costs and carbon footprint,” he said.
The cell owner will continue to earn rental income from the solar system for the next 20 years.
Sun Exchange CEO Saul Wainwright said that finding solar financing solutions was important to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels. He said “With the impacts of climate change becoming alarmingly real across the world, we must urgently scale solutions that address the solar finance gap for smaller solar projects in emerging markets, while also mitigating the energy crisis. A Sun Exchange statement on the PBHS crowdsourcing said that the solar system would prevent 5 800 tonnes of carbon from going into the atmosphere, the equivalent of 210 000 petrol cars being off the road for one year.”