The Sun Exchange was built around a core belief that great things are possible when people across the world come together for a common purpose. In light of the growing threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it’s more important than ever that people, businesses, and governments, across sectors and borders, unite in support of the greater good and behave responsibly. With this in mind, I wanted to connect with you, our global community, to let you know what steps we are taking in response to this developing crisis.

Our employees are now working remotely - COVID-19 can be carried for four days before symptoms develop, accelerating transmission rates. We believe it is a collective responsibility to slow down rates of transmission where practically possible, and therefore, we have instructed our team to work from home until further notice. Sun Exchange is a modern digital platform and we can adapt to this way of working so as to not impact our ability to continue operations and platform development. We are all in continuous communication to understand the impacts of COVID-19 and we are staying nimble and alert so we can respond to any potential business disruptions as swiftly as possible.

Our solar projects - We’re in regular contact with our installation partners and energy consumers to understand how they are being impacted.

Operating solar plants:

• The South African president has taken swift and decisive action to close schools from Wednesday 18th March until mid April to slow down the spread of the virus. This will mean a drop in their overall energy consumption. Sun Exchange’s solar plants are primarily designed to satisfy ‘baseload’ energy requirements, so we do not expect the impact on your earnings to be severe. In the 20 year view, this short term drop in usage should only cause a very minor impact on lifetime earnings from any cells powering these projects.
• As we have seen in countries already hit by the virus, supermarkets will continue to operate so we do not expect any impact on these types of projects.
• Elderly care homes and animal welfare facilities’ energy usage is also not expected to be impacted.

Projects under construction:

• All installations are currently being delivered as normal. We anticipate that supply chain issues may cause temporary shortages of some components, and we will work with our installers to find optimal solutions if these cases arise.
• Our installers are committed to the timely installation of your solar cells. We do, however, plan to be flexible if there are any delays caused by any mandatory or voluntary self-isolation measures.

Future projects:

• Several solar cell crowdsales are signed and being prepared for launch. South Africa’s energy crisis is also very real and needs to continue to be addressed.
• New solar cell crowdsales for schools will most likely be delayed due to forced school closures.

While your current priority is surely to address your own personal and family concerns about COVID-19, I hope you know that our team at Sun Exchange is thinking of you. These are trying times, yet we remain optimistic knowing the sun will continue to shine.

Wishing you and your family health and wellbeing.

Sincerely,
Abraham Cambridge
Founder & CEO, Sun Exchange