Earth Day, held on Sunday, April 22nd,  is a day of awareness of the global environmental movement.  Orchestrated by the Earth Day Network, the world’s largest recruiter of the environmental movement, it involves more than 50,000 partners in nearly 200 countries, all committed to the cause of environmental democracy. More than a billion people now participate in Earth Day activities annually, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

In conjunction with this year’s festivities, two blockchain-centric projects, ImpactPPA and Sun Exchange are building awareness regarding their environmentally-related projects.

ImpactPPA is a decentralized, renewable energy platform poised to create a new normal for renewable energy finance and global energy production. This platform and tokenized model allows communities to rapidly fund and deploy clean energy solutions by upending traditionally expensive and inefficient structures for energy financing.

The company uses blockchain to democratize renewable energy funding into a lower-friction, faster model. Its technology is already being directed toward clean energy initiatives in developing nations, including the country of Haiti. Former U.S. EPA National Advisory Committee member, Dr. Michael Dorsey is on their board of advisors.

ImpactPPA and Earth Day Network recently agreed to collaborate on an initiative to install clean energy systems at 50 facilities worldwide by 2020. The “50 by 50” initiative will focus on providing hybrid wind and solar installations to schools, healthcare centers, and other facilities whose work could be greatly enhanced by access to reliable energy.

The first installation will be at Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Through this effort, ImpactPPA will install a hybrid wind and solar system to provide affordable and reliable energy, allowing money currently spent acquiring fuel to be channeled directly into patient care. This project aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which seeks to provide universal access to sustainable energy by 2030 with a focus on healthcare centers. This goal is especially important in regions like sub-Saharan Africa, where just 28 percent of healthcare facilities report having reliable access to electricity.

ImpactPPA will be recognized at Earth Day Network’s Climate Leadership Gala for its work with the Edna Adan Hospital in Washington D.C. on May 8, 2018. The annual event gathers some of the world’s most distinguished green economy leaders and celebrates achievements contributing to a post-carbon future.

Says Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network: “We hope that the success of our first project with ImpactPPA will become a launchpad for continuing our work together and identifying other worthy projects and partners around the globe. This initiative will not only showcase an emergent technology but also have a real impact on people who need clean energy.”

“Scientists are sounding the alarm that unless we take better care of the planet, we risk more and even deadlier viruses ravaging our communities,” said Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network. #RestoreOurEarth #EarthDay2021 pic.twitter.com/ig5uhf3HmM

— EARTHDAY.ORG (@EarthDay) December 31, 2020

When asked about the value proposition of the ImpactPPA renewable energy/blockchain project, CEO Dan Bates had this to add: “ImpactPPA has created an end to end, renewable energy solution, meaning, we manage power from generation to payment on a mobile device. This allows energy consumers in a developing nation to now have access to energy on a pre-pay or pay-as-you-go model.”

Continues Bates:  “As a result, we can now provide energy to people who do not have access to energy with a clean renewable resource delivered in a way that allows for incremental payment, rather than needing to come up with the upfront cost of a renewable energy installation or long-term capital commitment. It’s essentially a micro-payment for on-demand energy.”

Bates says that adding blockchain transparency and trust to the renewable energy space, it will not only provide clarity in the production of clean energy, but, in ImpactPPA’s case, will allow for the added benefit of providing “identity” to the millions, or billions of people that are currently unbanked and unconnected. This, he notes, will bring vast numbers of people into the digital age and allow for all sorts of added value, from an internet service provider and internet connectivity to improved healthcare and education, just to name a few.

The Sun Exchange is a blockchain-based solar, micro-leasing marketplace that allows members to invest in crowd-funded solar projects for small businesses, schools, hospitals, and other community organizations in emerging markets. The company, a recognized leader in Africa’s blockchain landscape, has already facilitated financing for four solar projects that are fully operational in South Africa, including a school, two wildlife protection parks, and a tire recycling factory. On April 17th, the company unveiled two new blockchain-based solar financing innovations, including the world’s first crowd-sourced insurance fund for solar projects in emerging markets.

Remarked Abraham Cambridge, founder, and CEO of Sun Exchange:

“Sun Exchange uses blockchain to stream monetized sunshine around the world. Through our solar micro-leasing marketplace, virtually anyone with an internet connection can purchase solar panels and lease them to be installed in commercially-viable projects located in the sunniest locations on Earth, and then earn a rental income paid in Bitcoin. The solar project off-takers (lessees) are small and medium businesses, schools, hospitals, NGOs, and other important development organizations in emerging markets who benefit significantly from having access to affordable clean energy.”

He says that the Sun Exchange model of blockchain-enabled solar cell nano-leasing to distributed generation projects is being rapidly adopted in emerging markets because it’s incredibly quick and easy to deploy.

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“All that’s required is a liquid crypto-exchange or on-site crypto-mining, both of which are things that can easily exist if not already present. Most blockchains for energy projects today are peer-to-peer energy trading platforms, but those solutions face major regulatory barriers to adoption when trading utility-scale clean energy over pre-existing energy networks.”

Cambridge says that Blockchain-based solar asset leasing doesn’t face those same obstacles, and will quickly become a driving force in the global transition to clean power. He concludes: “Peer-to-peer trading, on the other hand, will be slow to grow until the regulations catch up — likely another 2 years, but once it does, it will complete the final piece of the decentralized clean energy jigsaw.”