Fintech

Renewables.org

The crowdfunding nonprofit where anyone can invest in high impact solar & get repaid.

Visit renewables.org ↗
Role
  • Cofounder & CEO
  • Product design
  • Front end
Stack
  • Next.js
  • Vercel
Platform
  • Web

The opportunity

I was recruited by “PayPal Mafioso” and Kiva.org cofounder Premal Shah to adapt the microfinance crowdfunding model he pioneered for climate impact. He saw that Kiva’s lenders were clamoring for climate projects to fund but had few options, while solar developers across India and Africa had deep pipelines of high-impact projects and little access to finance.

Renewables.org is the marketplace that connects the two, letting anyone lend to a vetted solar project and get their money back as the loan is repaid.

Trine
Raise GreenSun ExchangeMosaicWunder CapitalWrenTerrapassCool EffectClimate VaultRenewables.org
A variety of for-profit retail solar investing platforms have come and gone, and a variety of climate charity funds give to various causes. Renewables.org makes retail climate finance work through a novel nonprofit model. Competitive positioning map. For-profit solar finance: Trine, Raise Green, Sun Exchange, Mosaic, and Wunder Capital. For-profit slush funds: Wren and Terrapass. Nonprofit slush funds: Cool Effect and Climate Vault. Renewables.org is alone in the corner for nonprofit solar finance.

The product

Lenders browse vetted solar projects, read the loan terms in plain language, and fund one in a few steps. Each project page makes the mechanics legible: who the installer is, what the panels power, and when the money comes back. As the loan is repaid, lenders follow the repayments as they arrive.

Sizing an investment shows its five-year carbon impact up front, the live performance card keeps a running count, a monthly email reports the repayments, and a quarterly PDF documents it all. Animated demo of the Renewables.org investment calculator, live performance card, repayment email, and quarterly impact report. The amount changes from $100 to $250 and the five year carbon impact updates to 52% of an average US home’s annual electricity use, 9,900 miles of economy flight, and 14% of the average US per capita footprint. The investment is switched to monthly, and the impact grows to 31.1 times an average US home’s electricity use, 591,500 miles of economy flight, and 849% of the average US per capita footprint. The calculator then gives way to the live performance card, whose rolling counters of kilowatt hours generated and pounds of CO2 avoided open at about 28,500 kilowatt hours and 41,200 pounds, two and a half years into the monthly plan, and keep climbing. Last comes that month’s repayment summary email: $120.83 repaid in the past 30 days and $1,812.50 all time, with a photo of a solar project the lender helped finance in Tamil Nadu, India. Finally the quarterly impact report fans out: its cover, a Solar Finance Activity page with $7,500 invested and $1,813 repaid, and a Carbon Avoidance Report page with about 28,500 kilowatt hours generated and 20.6 tons of CO2 avoided, each charted quarter by quarter.

The system

A nonprofit that handles other people’s money has to keep two ledgers that never mix. Lenders’ principal sits in its own fund: it goes out as solar loans and comes back to lenders as developers repay, without ever touching operations.

The developers repay with interest, and that interest, together with donations from individuals, donor-advised funds, and employer matching, is what runs the nonprofit. Lenders get every dollar back; Renewables.org is funded by the work their dollars do.

RENEWABLES.ORG · MONEY FLOWFollow the moneyLenders’ principal funds solar and comes back to them. Interest and donations run the nonprofit.LendersINVESTStripedebit & credit cardACH bank transferSETTLESLender fundFUND SOLAR LOANSSolar developersREPAYPrincipal orinterest?PRINCIPALINTERESTPRINCIPAL RETURNED TO LENDERSDonorsDONATEStripeCheckWire transferDonor-advised fundsEmployer matchingOperatingloan interestdonationsReservemonths of runwaySPENDSalariesContractorsMarketingTravelOffice & adminLegal & accountingpeopleoutside serviceRenewables.org accountborrowerexpensedecisioninternal transfer
Principal moves in a closed loop between lenders and solar developers. Interest and donations flow to the operating account, which keeps a reserve and pays the costs of running the nonprofit. Diagram of how money moves through Renewables.org. Lenders invest through Stripe, a payment processor, which settles into a lender fund held apart from operations. The lender fund funds solar loans to developers in India and Africa, who repay with interest. A decision splits each repayment into principal and interest. Principal returns to the lender fund and from there back to lenders. Interest flows to the operating account, which also receives donations from individuals, donor-advised funds, employer matching, and the PayPal Giving Fund. The operating account moves money to and from an operating reserve and spends on salaries and contractors, research and development, marketing, office and admin, and legal and accounting.
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