REW: “Barely three years old, the company has attracted over 1,200 investors to finance solar power generation projects, with contributions ranging from $25 to $10,000.” (more…)
Solarcentury
The company I founded in 1998 to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Solarcentury
Solar Aid
The charity I founded in 2006, with a 5% contribution of Solarcentury profits, to help deliver solar lighting to Africa. Solar Aid
Archive for the ‘Change for Good’ Category
Mosaic rolls out its third solar crowdfunding offer.
April 29, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceSaudi Arabia partners with US lab in kingdom’s solar plan.
April 22, 2013 Change for Good, Clean EnergyBill McKibben describes “a new resistance” to fossil fuels.
April 11, 2013 Change for Good, ClimateBill McKibben in Rolling Stone magazine: “We’re not breaking records anymore; we’re breaking the planet. In 50 years, no one will care about the fiscal cliff or the Euro crisis. They’ll just ask, “So the Arctic melted, and then what did you do?” Here’s the good news: We’ll at least be able to say we fought.” (more…)
Solar Mosaic approved to offer $100m solar investment.
April 8, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceBilly Parish on REW: “Mosaic has just been approved to offer $100 million in solar investments to residents of California.” (more…)
Brands pioneering ‘net-positive’ goals: a progress report.
April 3, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, ClimatePhil Drew in the Guardian: “The power of net positive is the clarity and boldness of the vision, encouraging companies to look more outwardly, far beyond the horizon of their own immediate impacts: Kingfisher and IKEA aim to create more forest than they use in product; Coca Cola aims to return as much water to nature as it uses in its products and their production; BT wants to help consumers cut carbon by at least three times the full carbon impact of its business by offering greener products.” (more…)
Bergen City Council considers proposal to sell fossil fuel shares.
March 23, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Finance, Gas, OilByluftlisten: “The City Air List (Byluftlisten) in the Bergen City Council on March 22, 2013 submitted a proposal to sell the city pension fund’s holdings in companies with significant fossil fuel reserves. The «unburnable» carbon risk consists in significant portions of such holdings becoming worthless if global climate policy succeeds.” (more…)
Caudrilla halts operations at one of its three UK sites / faces DECC censure.
March 14, 2013 Change for GoodCrowdfunding “coming of age” for cleantech start ups.
March 11, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceREW: “For clean technology startups, there are now no shortage of sites to cater to them. In addition to Kickstarter, Indiegogo and their general ilk like RocketHub, Seedmatch and Crowdfunder, Greenfunder is a crowdfunding platform for green, sustainable and related projects.” (more…)
Solar lanterns on the verge of mainstream acceptance in Africa.
February 28, 2013 Change for Good, Clean EnergySolar Power Portal: “Solar lanterns are capable of emulating the likes of Coca-Cola and mobile phone companies by finding a route to mass markets in Africa, according to UK-based charity SolarAid.” (more…)
UK local authority pension fund agrees £12m loan for solar farm co-op.
February 7, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceIPE: “Lancashire County Pension Fund has invested £12m (€14m) in a community owned solar power plant in Oxfordshire, a commitment the scheme’s chair described as “worthwhile and sustainable”. The £4.6bn fund for the English county will provide £12m to refinance the project’s cost, with the Westmill Solar Cooperative repaying the loan by 2037.” (more…)
A renewables revolution despite civil war in energy markets? Possible.
January 29, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, OilMy presentation to Enova 2013 in Trondheim, posted on You-Tube, professionally edited, on the same day as the impressively organised conference. The part in English starts 1 minute in.
“You can power the world this way”: a short film on Open Energy.
January 15, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, Nuclear, OilA young film maker wanted to make a film on the democratisation of energy, and we decided to help him at Solarcentury. This film is what he came up with.
Australia suffers record wildfires in record heatwave.
January 14, 2013 Change for GoodGuardian: “Australia’s heatwave set a new high of almost 50C as authorities warned that large uncontrolled bushfires would continue to threaten areas in the south-east of the country.” (more…)
Ethical sales in UK rose in 2012 despite the recession.
December 29, 2012 Change for Good, FinanceGuardian: “Since the onset of the economic downturn five years ago, the value of ethical markets from Fairtrade products and green energy to free-range and sustainable food has grown from £35.5bn to £47.2bn, according to a report produced by the Co-operative Bank. The annual ethical consumer markets report shows that sales in the sector have grown from £13.5bn in 1999.”
Clean energy co-ops being formed in Germany one every two days.
December 17, 2012 Change for Good, Clean EnergyEuropean Energy Review: When Germany’s environment minister Peter Altmaier addressed the first-ever congress of energy cooperatives in Berlin on November 19, he knew he was looking out over one of the Energiewende’s core constituencies.” (more…)
Peer-to-peer & crowdfunding boom could make banks obsolete: BoE.
December 17, 2012 Change for Good, FinanceIndependent: “The days of the banking middlemen may be numbered as a technological revolution in business lending shakes the dominance of the UK’s biggest banks, a senior director of the Bank of England has said.” (more…)
SolarAid launches its second crowdfunding project with partner Sunfunder.
December 4, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceUK Fundraising: This “follows its first successful crowdfunding campaign in September this year in which it raised $10,000 in four weeks from 86 individuals. This time SolarAid seeking funding for $20,000 to help buy solar lights that can be used by families who burn kerosene or candles for lighting. (more…)
What does a renaissance solar lighting company look like?
November 28, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, CommentariesMy appeal for crowd-sourced advice in the Guardian: Not many people are lucky enough to be able to design a sustainable company from scratch with money in the bank and products flying off the shelves. My colleagues and I are in that position. (more…)
First-ever publicly listed UK solar bond bought by a pension fund.
November 23, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceClimate Bonds Initiative: “The £6 bn Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has bought up as a private placement the first ever UK publicly-listed solar bond, a £40m ($64m), 24 year bond linked to two 5 MWh solar plants in Somerset owned by Solar Power Generation.” (more…)
Ikea plans for renewable self-sufficiency by 2020.
October 23, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, ClimateCrowdfunding options set to grow for distributed solar.
August 21, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceCleantech Finance: “As the SEC continues to develop the rules and regulations regarding debt and equity based crowdfunding, many in the industry are trying to help entrepreneurs get ready for the changes. For those that have developed projects for donation based platforms such as Kickstarter and Rockethub it will be important to become educated on the complex process for debt and equity based projects. …..Within the cleantech sector, there is potential for companies and entrepreneurs to take full advantage of debt and equity based crowdfunding.”
“Solar lanterns replace kerosene killers in Africa”: ABC Radio.
April 6, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, Climate, CommentariesABC Science Show: “Kerosene lanterns are used for lighting across Africa. They result in poor health outcomes and loss of life due to accidents. An alternative is the cheap, highly efficient solar lantern.” (more…)
Tags: Africa, Australia, Solar lighting