Well, everyone in the USA anyway. Mosaic is a crowdfunding concept allowing all types of investors to help finance solar projects – all it takes is as little as $25 to participate.
The way Mosaic works:
1. Mosaic connects investors, large and small, to solar projects in need of financing.
2. Once the required funding level is met, the project begins
3. Revenue is generated by the project through electricity sold to the customer.
4. The revenue pays back the investors with interest.
Investors generally receive a minimum fixed 4.5 percent annual return on their money; which is higher than most small investments will currently return in the USA.
Mosaic’s mission is to “open up clean energy investing and fundamentally change the way energy is financed”.
“We see a huge opportunity for transitioning our world to clean energy ahead of us and we want to make it possible for communities to prosper from this massive transformation,” says Mosaic’s CEO Dan Rosen.
So far, more than $1.1 million has been invested through Mosaic and the founders say investors have received 100% on-time repayments.
During Mosaic’s initial phase, more than 400 people invested close to $400,000 to finance six solar farms with a collective 120kW capacity. Those initial projects will save the community organizations involved an estimated $438,000 on their power bills over the next 20 years.
Since opening up participation to the general public earlier today, 154 investors had joined at last count.
“Though the pace is frantic, we’re having a fantastic day here at Mosaic HQ. And there’s always tomorrow to clean the coffee and ketchup off our keyboards,” said Mosaic’s Erica Etelson.
In June last year, Mosaic (known as Solar Mosaic at the time) received $2 million from the US Department of Energy under its Sunshot initiative.
Perhaps we’ll see an Australian Mosaic soon?
