2024 Global Climate Challenge
Renewables.org | Global South non-profit solar investing
What is the name of your solution?
Renewables.org | Global South non-profit solar investing
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Build solar where it does the most good. Invest in solar across India and Africa & get repaid over five years.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
New York, NY, USAIn what country is your solution team headquartered?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
What specific problem are you solving?
In the Global South, energy needs are outpacing those of developed nations - and their power grids are more carbon intensive. Without action, emissions will continue to grow.
In developed markets like the U.S., a vibrant finance ecosystem ensures that money is available to build new solar projects. But in places like India and Africa, lack of funding is the main barrier to new solar project construction.
Our users solve this problem by non-profit investing with Renewables.org:
User funds are lent to Global South solar developers.
The developers build the world's highest-impact solar projects.
As the projects sell electricity, the revenue they earn is paid back to users, who can withdraw repayments or reinvest them.
As our community grows, we're able to accelerate solar deployment where it's needed most.
What is your solution?
Renewables.org is the Global South solar investing non-profit. We've helped build dozens of solar projects across India and Africa. Anyone can invest in high impact solar and get paid back as their Panels sell carbon free electricity.
• Users lend money by investing in a $25 Panel.
• We lend that money to emerging market developers who use it to build solar projects.
• As the solar projects generate and sell carbon-free electricity, users get paid back.
As our community grows, we'll accelerate solar deployment in the places where it makes the most climate impact.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Renewables.org is an environmental non-profit – we seek out the highest impact-per-dollar solar investments and provide a scalable and resilient source of capital via our non-profit investing platform. The investments we’ve identified as having the highest carbon prevention per dollar are Global South commercial solar facilities.
Directly, we are serving two constituencies – one side of our market are relatively affluent non-profit solar investors who use Renewables.org because it is the highest impact and most reputable place to prevent carbon emissions. On the other side, we work with Global South solar developers who can obtain financing from us once they meet our impact requirements.
While reduced carbon emissions and climate action benefits everyone – Global South solar creates secondary benefits in the relatively low-income regions where we build it:
Cleaner air from reduced use of local diesel generators and coal infrastructure.
Economic growth and resilience due to more abundant, reliable, and cheaper energy.
Many of the solar projects we help finance are in remote regions out of reach of traditional finance and banking, which lead to underdevelopment. These powerful secondary benefits improve quality of life and economic opportunity where it is badly needed.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our cofounder Premal Shah helped launch Kiva, the billion-dollar microfinance crowdfunding non-profit. We are on a path to creating the same scale of impact with Renewables.org.
Kiva.org raises money to address Global South poverty. Renewables.org raises money to address the Global South climate transition.
Kiva.org allows anyone to make a one year 0% interest loan to individuals without access to consumer credit. Renewables.org allows anyone to make a five year 0% interest loan to solar developers without access to commercial credit.
Kiva.org uses microfinance to scale solutions to Global South poverty. Renewables.org uses non-profit solar investing to scale solutions to the Global South Climate Crisis.
Premal Shah helped Kiva.org raise over $2 billion since 2005 to advance its non-profit mission – now, Renewables.org leans on his experience on its journey to raise billions of dollars to advance our non-profit mission.
Our founding team also includes:
- Lassor Feasley, CEO & Co-founder. Lassor has a background in design and brand strategy, and a vast network in the solar finance industry.
- Scott Schwartz, CTO & Co-founder. Scott previously led the Internal Tools engineering team at global ad-tech giant Taboola.
- Dave Riess, Founding Board Member. Dave is co-founder and CEO of Wunder Capital, the leading commercial solar investor and operator in the United States.
- Ruchir Punjabi, co-founder and Advisor. Ruchir is founder and CEO of Distributed Energy, a Global South solar developer with operations in Dubai, India, and across Africa.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
OtherWhich of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
GrowthWhy are you applying to Solve?
Renewables.org is an early startup with a talented team but few resources. As we scale, the resources provided at Solve could be valuable to our work. For example, Renewables.org has unique legal needs due to the novelty of its financial offerings. We also believe that Solve’s support building an impact measurement process could be valuable to our continued growth. In addition:
Renewables.org offers a D2C product, so exposure through press and conferences is incredibly valuable.
The $10,000 in grant funds will go a long way in catalyzing Global South solar investment.
We look forward to participating in Solve’s Flagship events, which we would see as an opportunity to expose our project design to a diverse audience.
Most importantly, we would hope to become better integrated with the international community of Solve entrepreneurs and with the MIT community at large. Our cofounder Premal Shah shepherded many academic collaborations in his time building Kiva.org, and we hope to do the same at Renewables.org.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Lassor Feasley
What makes your solution innovative?
Renewables.org is the only Global South solar investing non-profit. We've helped build dozens of solar projects across India and Africa. Anyone can invest in high impact solar and get paid back as their Panels sell carbon-free electricity.
• Users lend money by investing in a $25 Panel.
• We lend that money to emerging market developers who use it to build solar projects.
• As the projects sell electricity, the revenue is paid back to users, who can withdraw repayments or reinvest them for even greater impact.
As our community grows, we're able to accelerate solar deployment where it makes the most climate impact – we match an urgent need for environmental action with an overwhelming desire to give to that cause.
Our theory of change is inspired by the experience our cofounder Premal Shah had while building Kiva.org. In 2006, Kiva built a retail marketplace that allowed anyone to help fund loans to impoverished individuals across the Global South. By bringing visibility, a track record, and legitimacy to the ‘microfinance’ vertical, Kiva.org not only catalyzed $2 billion in microloans through their platform – they seeded what is not a multibillion dollar industry served by private finance, foundations, and a vast ecosystem of providers.
Premal recognized that Global South commercial solar development is ripe for a similar transformation – Renewables.org is well positioned to do just that. In the past year, we have built an online investing platform that can serve as the nexus of financial and digital innovation that catalyzes renewables finance where it is needed most.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
In the Global South, energy needs are outpacing those of developed nations - and their power grids are more carbon intensive. Without action, emissions will continue to grow.
In developed markets like the U.S., a vibrant finance ecosystem ensures that money is available to build new solar projects. But in places like India and Africa, lack of funding is the main barrier to new solar project construction.
This landscape reminded our cofounder Premal of the state of microfinance when he started building Kiva.org in 2006. Premal built a retail marketplace that allowed millions and millions of lenders to fund loans to impoverished individuals across the Global South.
By bringing visibility, a track record, and legitimacy to the ‘microfinance’ vertical, Kiva.org not only catalyzed $2 billion in microloans through their platform – they seeded what is not a multibillion dollar industry served by private finance, foundations, and a vast ecosystem of providers.
Premal recognized that Global South commercial solar development is ripe for a similar transformation – Renewables.org is well positioned to do just that. In the past year, we have built an online investing platform that can serve as the nexus of financial and digital innovation that catalyzes renewables finance where it is needed most.
At Kiva.org, the most requested product feature was environmental microlending. This is a request Kiva.org always struggled to accommodate given their anti-poverty focus. Renewables.org is already engaging the Kiva community with our solution. In addition, we are addressing the needs of a younger generation eager to align their lifestyle, career, and finances around sustainable outcomes.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
Renewables.org relies on three performance indicators to measure success. The first two are obvious – total number of users (500+) and total funds invested ($100,000). The third is more interesting – we work to ensure that our Global South non-profit investing method prevents more carbon emissions than the same investment in solar would have in developed markets.
Our metric to gauge this is called the Impact Multiplier, and it calculates exactly how many times more carbon per dollar is prevented by investing via Renewables.org compared with investing in the United States. The Impact Multiplier incorporates three metrics:
The Carbon Multiplier shows how solar projects on carbon intensive power grids in the Global South create greater impact.
The Sunny Days Multiplier shows how solar projects create greater impact when located in places that are sunnier.
The Construction Multiplier shows how lower construction costs in the Global South help create greater impact.
Using the Impact Multiplier, Renewables.org has found that its portfolio prevents 5 times more carbon per dollar than the same investment would in the U.S. The Impact Multiplier is open source, and you can access it here.
To date, investing activities on our platform have prevented 30 tons of carbon emissions according to our methodology. We believe that we could grow our impact to billions of tons once we build a community of non-profit investors.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Renewables.org uses an online crowdfunding engine to accelerate solar development in the Global South. Much of our work rests on well established technologies that are commonly used on consumer finance marketplaces. However, these tools are rarely utilized in a non-profit context.
We work with Global South solar developers to finance high impact commercial solar projects – then we show some of these sites on our platform and issue shares of them in the form of ‘Panels’ which are issued to their virtual ‘Rooftop’ dashboard. User’s can see their total climate impact from their rooftop, and double click on solar projects in their portfolios.
In the future, we plan to add exciting new features that make our platform even more immersive:
Social features like an ‘impact leaderboard’ that allows you to compete to create the most impact.
Rewards like badges and milestones that celebrate your participation and achievements and encourage follow on investments.
Real time monitoring tools that allow you to visualize and understand the power impact you’ve created on Renewables.org.
As our platform matures, we will introduce a streamlined, gamified experience that makes non-profit investing fun and engaging – as well as personally rewarding on an altruistic level.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
www.Renewables.org
In which countries do you currently operate?
How many people work on your solution team?
Renewables.org has two full time cofounders:
- Lassor Feasley, CEO & Co-founder. Lassor has a background in design and brand strategy, and a vast network in the solar finance industry.
- Scott Schwartz, CTO & Co-founder. Scott previously led the Internal Tools engineering team at global ad-tech giant Taboola.
Our founding team includes board members: - Premal Shah Premal is an expert in emerging market finance and tech non-profit entrepreneurship – he is known for his work creating Kiva.org.
- Dave Riess, Dave is co-founder and CEO of Wunder Capital, the leading commercial solar investor and operator in the United States.
How long have you been working on your solution?
The Renewables.org team started prototyping in April of 2023 – we launched our first online solar investing product shortly before the holiday season.
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
To date, Renewables.org has consisted of a small two person team working pro-bono – however, as we grow it is important to us that our workspace be diverse and inclusive. This is especially true given that our counterparties are Global South solar developers and other beneficiaries throughout India and Africa.
As our business matures and we start to hire additional team members, we will consider their contribution to the diversity of our workplace, including social, cultural, and identity based attributes. We will also adopt a statement of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion once our organization matures and we have additional employees who might contribute to its construction.
What is your business model?
Renewables.org is a non-profit that earns revenue from philanthropic donations and from interest earned by the Renewables Fund.
When you make an investment on Renewables.org, your money is deposited in the Renewables Fund, which lends to developers building high impact solar projects. These developers pay Renewables.org a market rate of return, around 5-10%.
- Renewables.org repays you the principal of your investment over time, and keeps the interest earned to fund itself.
- This interest allows Renewables.org to cover its operating costs and advance its non-profit mission.
- Renewables.org also accepts donations from foundations and individuals.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
When you make an investment on Renewables.org, your money is deposited in the Renewables Fund, which lends to developers building high impact solar projects. These developers pay Renewables.org a market rate of return, around 5-10%.This interest allows Renewables.org to cover its operating costs and advance its non-profit mission.
At scale, the spread between principal repayments to users and the interest payments we receive from developers could finance a robust operating budget. Once we hit $1-$2 in investment inflows annually, we will be able to sustain operations without outside funding.
To date, we have generated revenue from two sources:
Charitable grants from private individuals and organizations including the philanthropic arm of the venture capital firm True Ventures and from the Yale School of Management.
Revenue from interest from our investments with Global South solar developers.
Solution Team
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Renewables.org