It’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. Many of us are eager to bid 2020 goodbye, as the pandemic has made it one of the most unusual and difficult years in recent history. People, businesses and organisations all over the world have had our resilience pushed to the brink and we’ve had to adapt to new ways of working and interacting.

However, 2020 has also provided us with the opportunity to reassess what matters most and what we want as the path forward for ourselves and for the world. For this reason, we’re incredibly humbled and encouraged by the continued growth of Sun Exchange and grateful for our global community’s ongoing support. It is clear that many people worldwide are committed to taking action to rebuild energy and economic systems that are more conscientious, inclusive and sustainable.

One of the biggest Sun Exchange developments this year was the close of our Series A funding round in June, led by an investment from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners. This gave us the boost needed to realise a major and long-sought milestone of scaling into new emerging markets and delivering affordable, reliable and clean energy to organisations in new parts of the African continent.

In November, we announced our first solar project outside South Africa, which will power Nhimbe Fresh, a community-minded agriculture leader in Marondera, Zimbabwe that runs an outgrower scheme working with 250 smallholder farmers. This is also our largest project to date and our first project with integrated battery storage, meaning that solar power can be used around the clock, drastically maximising value for solar cell owners and for Nhimbe Fresh and its stakeholders.

We’re also proud that our global community, who make our solar projects possible, grows more each day. There are now 20,000 Sun Exchange members from 174 countries on our platform. People from 117 different countries already offset their carbon footprint and earn a solar powered income by owning solar cells in Sun Exchange projects.

Thanks to this inspiring and committed global community, Sun Exchange has now installed more than 980,000 solar cells, which have offset 3.5 million kilograms of CO2 -- equivalent to the carbon sequestered from planting 42,000 trees!

We have more than doubled the Sun Exchange solar project portfolio over the last year, which now features 35 solar installations. With two of our recent projects, Nhimbe Fresh and Boland Cellar, we made traction into agriculture -- a critical new sector for Sun Exchange in urgent need of clean energy and sustainable solutions. We salute the farms, businesses, schools, retirement homes, and other organisations that have gone solar through Sun Exchange in 2020 and beyond! They are important models of efficiency, innovation and climate leadership.

In the midst of this challenging year, there is much to celebrate here. Not just for Sun Exchange as a company, but for our entire community and ecosystem of members, customers, partners and supporters. What drives our growth is your belief in a better future for humanity and the planet.

Thank you all so much for your continued support of Sun Exchange, we are endlessly grateful.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday season. See you next year!