Sun Exchange Video Diary #49
The 49th episode of Sun Exchange Video Diaries has landed!
Now being released on a quarterly basis, these video blogs take you behind the scenes of Sun Exchange, giving you the latest on solar cell installations, community energy production, industry news and much more!
In this episode:
- Recently completed crowdsales
- Installation updates
- INSIGHT: Bitcoin energy intensity and creating a virtuous cycle of abundance
- Sun Exchange in the news
Transcript and notes
This year we’re doing things slightly differently. We’ve decided to give quarterly video updates interspersed by Sun Exchange community calls. Community calls give you the opportunity to ask us questions in real-time. Keep an eye out in your inbox and be sure to get involved in those.
What a fantastic start to 2021. We saw three solar crowdsales already completed. One of which was for our biggest solar project yet - Nhimbe Fresh. Over 1900 of you in nearly 100 countries are now powering this sustainable agricultural leader. Not to mention that it was actually the biggest crowdsourced project that Africa has ever seen in any sector. This is absolutely mega! With over 500 kilowatts of power and 1-megawatt hour of battery storage, Nhimbe Fresh is the first project to date with energy storage capabilities. So congratulations and thank you to everyone who took part in this landmark project. If you did miss out on this, don’t worry - we have three more phases of this project coming soon. We also completed crowdsales for both Watergate Apartments and SPAR Plaza. If you’ve bought cells in those projects, installations are now well underway.
In other news, both ECHO Foundation - Munro Kirk and CPOA Kronendal have gone operational in this quarter. They are now being supplied by clean, affordable solar electricity, by you, our Sun Exchange community. So if you are powering those projects, congratulations, and you'll be earning with purpose soon enough.
A big topic that's been making headlines recently is around the energy consumption of Bitcoin. Introspection and inquisition are critical elements of sustainable innovation. So the very fact that as an industry we're having this conversation is a good thing. However, it's critical to look at the big picture. Bitcoin actually has a very important role to play in mitigating global warming by accelerating the global transition to clean energy. It enables borderless decentralized financing alternatives, unlocking the potential for clean energy around the world in ways that traditional finance simply cannot. When we look at the data, and research on how Bitcoin mining is powered, we can see that much higher proportions of renewables are used in this than any other industry.
There are also signs that indicate that the entire Bitcoin ecosystem is on a path towards being fully powered by renewable energy for the simple fact that renewable energy is now the most affordable type of energy. But ultimately, what really matters is what we do with our Bitcoin. We have to put our Bitcoin to work. Right now, it takes about 230-megawatt hours of electricity to mine one bitcoin, but that one bitcoin can finance 60 kilowatts of solar panels. Now over the lifetime of those solar panels, they will produce 1800 megawatt-hours of clean electricity. And when those solar panels are deployed in a coal-powered country like South Africa, you're going to end up offsetting eight times the carbon emissions than it took to create that Bitcoin in the first place. Another perspective is it would only take 5% of the market cap of Bitcoin now (which is over $1 trillion) to finance the 50 gigawatts of solar panels that would be required to power the entire network. With Sun Exchange in place, we now have the tools to create a solar-powered financial system that can stream Bitcoin mined sustainably, 24/7/365 to create a virtuous cycle for all. For those of you that want to take a deeper dive into the world of Sun Exchange and the impact we're having. I do recommend checking these two links:
One has a feature of me on the Anita Posch podcast discussing Bitcoins energy use in more detail. Additionally, you'll see a link to a podcast published by TechZim magazine. That was an interview between myself and the CEO of Nhimbe Fresh. We discuss in detail the impact that solar energy can have on the agricultural sector across Africa.
And finally, some news from the Sun Exchange team. None other than our very own Kath Sharfman has just been listed as a Forbes CMO.
Alongside some true CMO heavyweights around the world from top brands including Facebook, Black Rock, TikTok, Sony and Impossible Foods. So congratulations, Kath! You made all of us here at Sun Exchange very proud. So there you have it, an update on all things Sun Exchange. We are so pleased to have you as part of our community. If you enjoyed this video, please make sure to like and subscribe and click that notification bell. We look forward to seeing you in the next video. See you there.