Sun Exchange
Small Scale Renewable Energy
Established in 2015, Sun Exchange is a fast growing global solar leasing platform where people and businesses around the world unite to enable solar power for schools, non-profits, farms and other small-to-medium organisations in Southern Africa. To date, the company has unlocked solar power for 70 solar projects, totalling nearly 8 MW of installed capacity.
Sun Exchange allows anyone, anywhere to buy solar cells and automatically lease them to power organisations in sunny Southern Africa. Solar cell owners create a positive impact as they earn, while the organisations they solar power gain access to simple, affordable, reliable clean energy.
This project listed with Credible Carbon involves twenty-seven sites across Southern Africa.
Credible Carbon is committed to accelerating the uptake of grid-tied renewable energy, recognising that the pace of the transition is critical to the amount of GHG that ends up in the atmosphere.
Trading Period
Project commencement date: 1 January, 2020
Project period: 21 years
Project Benefits
The company occupies an important niche in the energy sector by providing financing to smaller organisations that would otherwise be unable to afford clean energy technology. Sun Exchange represents a groundbreaking innovation that supports the broader transition to decentralised clean energy.
Sun Exchange has a member base of tens of thousands of people from more than 180 countries that buy solar cells in crowdsales hosted on the platform. The company also works closely with corporate partners that deploy their ESG and sustainability funding to buy solar cells or donate funds to support projects for social and environmental impact.
When a new project comes online, the company facilitates a crowd sale and any individual or organisation, anywhere in the world, can sign up to be a Sun Exchange member and buy solar cells.
Half the carbon revenue generated from the sale of carbon credits will be used to subsidise tariffs at poorer schools and other social impact projects. The fund will not be formally constituted at this stage but rather managed an allocation within the company’s accounting records.
Sustainable Development Goals
Sun Exchange enables the financing of micro-scale projects and, in the process, they have a positive impact on employment and education. The organisation is a good example of a small green economy business that creates jobs and has a positive impact on the environment, society and broader stakeholders. Sun Exchange currently employs 28 people.
A growing number of Sun Exchange project sites are at schools. In addition, the organisation has committed to the formation of a fund to reduce electricity tariffs at poorer schools and other organisations which will see the ability to roll solar PV to a broader customer base.
Sun Exchange Project Idea Note
A Project Idea Note (PIN) was drawn up to formalise the project scope with regards to carbon credits.
Audits
The project’s first audit was for the period 2020 to 2022 was completed in April 2023. This audit indicates that, based on the information contained in the PIN and that available in the public domain, the Sun Exchange offering meets the requirements of Credible Carbon for inclusion in the registry. Furthermore, the calculations to convert electricity savings into emissions savings were found to be correct and the project is thus considered suited for generating carbon credits for sale
Project List
| Project Name | Solar Array Size kWp | SunEx Ownership of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Brackenfell High School | 56 | 100% |
| Boland Wine Cellar | 472.7 | 100% |
| Westville Girls’ High School | 80.34 | 100% |
| Spar Plaza | 360.8 | 100% |
| ECHO Foundation – Munro Kirk | 145.2 | 100% |
| CPOA Kronendal Retirement Village | 165.4 | 100% |
| Watergate Apartments | 114.48 | 100% |
| Vondeling Wines Winery | 52.6 | 100% |
| Vondeling Wines Carport | 6.52 | 100% |
| Morgenster Shopping Centre | 140.8 | 100% |
| SPAR Lulekani | 368.08 | 93.27% |
| La Recolte Retirement Village | 57.24 | 100% |
| Knysna Primary School | 22.41 | 100% |
| Rondebosch Boys High School 2021 | 136.95 | 100% |
| Rob Ferreira High School | 140.85 | 100% |
| Kingsway High School | 58.32 | 100% |
| Avontuur Estate | 122.58 | 100% |
| Carpe Diem School | 68.04 | 100% |
| Bo Karoo Farm | 108 | 100% |
| CPOA Avondrust Court | 187.92 | 53.61% |
| South Peninsula High School | 32.76 | 100% |
| Groot Constantia Estate | 164.59 | 100% |
| Plumstead High School | 55.08 | 100% |
| Somerset West Primary School | 21.84 | 100% |
| CPOA Berghof Retirement Village | 69.12 | 100% |
| Tamboerskloof Primary School | 32.7 | 100% |
| Karoo Fresh | 332.1 | 100% |
Estimated CO₂ reduction schedule
For the 27 project sites a total figure of 5 871 tCO₂e available for sale. The Karoo Fresh project used an emissions factor of 0.8 in keeping with recommendations in the methodology.
Baseline emissions in year y = Net energy displaced by the PV in year y X Grid Emission Factor in year y
2020 2021 2022 Total
PV generated energy per year (kWh/year) 95 755 2 095 359 3 308 036 5 499 150
Grid Emission Factor (kg CO2e/kWh) 1.07 1.07 1.07
0.8 for Karoo Fresh1.07
Avoided CO2 emissions (tCO2/yr) 102 2 242 3 526 5 871
Total Credits Sold: 36