Idea 411 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Knock on 20 doors in one street where the roofs are unshaded and ask each household to show you last month's electricity bill. Write down what they pay, then offer a lease on panels where the monthly fee is set below that figure, with nothing paid up front. The proof is a list of households who sign a letter of intent at that fee.
- Who pays first
- A household with a high monthly electricity bill and no savings for panels, which pays because the lease costs less than the bill it replaces.
- What leaves today
- Every unit of electricity burned from imported fuel sends money abroad; sunlight on a leased roof keeps that payment on the island.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
- 417Plastic-recycling units making building products from the beach and river waste
Idea 411 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.