CROWDFUNDING AND THE SOLAR MOTORWAY

Modern finance has developed over time, largely in response to sudden and unexpected events. One example is the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US, which nearly triggered a chain reaction that was narrowly averted and led to the adoption of the ‘too big to fail’ concept.

CROWDFUNDING + SOLAR HIGHWAY PROJECT = FREEDOM

Why “freedom”?

Freedom in the sense of: Independence from traditional, conservative financial institutions that are increasingly bound hand and foot by their regulatory bodies and internal regulations.... No breathers, please...

Indeed, crowdfunding for the Fully Solar Highway Project provides the seed funding required to launch the "SHOWCASE" project, which ALL international and national investors (A4-KW project) are waiting to see in operation before ordering similar installations on certain sections of their motorways.

Once the funding has been secured through crowdfunding, we will have the freedom to make (reasonable) choices for potential investors who would also like to participate...

Of course, once the Fully Solar Highway Project is launched, traditional financial institutions will also be able to finance subsequent projects very easily, as this has always been their intention and the door will always remain open.

To be continued soon....

Alain Farrugia

The rules in question certainly have some merits, but on the flip side they also entail a certain cumbersomeness, particularly of a bureaucratic nature, creating difficulties for projects that stray somewhat from the ‘usual mould’

Most of the great historical projects of the past could probably no longer be realised today, or at least not in the way they were carried out at the time, as they would no longer be financially viable. One might think as much of the discovery of the Americas as of the construction of our Swiss dams.

Still with the aim of giving you a glimpse of the future, here is another section currently under study for the famous A4-KW project, which is set to follow the Fully demonstrator:

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It is this kind of project that becomes difficult to finance for the first time.
(Note: the noise barrier is pre-existing and is not part of our solution)

As nature abhors a vacuum, a mechanism is gradually emerging to fill this gap: crowdfunding.

It is worth noting that crowdfunding as we know it today, across a wide variety of online platforms, is merely the culmination of an age-old method of financing often employed in communities that are either small or marginalised. One example is the Chinese immigrant community in Europe in the early 1960s, which had virtually nothing but, through an intelligent mechanism of solidarity, achieved a remarkable economic take-off.

The Tong Xiang Hui, literally translated as ‘association of people from the same hometown’.

Fundamentally, a project such as ours can secure funding through the following channels:

• institutional investors such as pension funds seeking a return that is not too high but extremely stable over the very long term,
• bank funds such as loans,
• ICOs, as discussed in the post of 6 May 2019 here,
• crowdfunding,
• government green subsidy schemes and/or innovation support programmes,
• pre-sales of electricity generation.

Institutional investors generally give us one of two responses: “Your concept is brilliant; as soon as you’ve built one, we’ll fund the next ones…” or “Bring in some additional funding equivalent to equity capital and we’ll back you.”

Consequently, considering partial crowdfunding becomes an option that cannot be overlooked and can serve as a tremendous catalyst for the project.

To avoid breaching financial regulations, we must either refrain from selling ordinary shares to the public or seek the assistance of an institution authorised to do so. However, we are free to offer:

• the pre-sale of a future consideration (typically kWh tranches),
• the sale of merchandise, also known as goodies,
• participation in the philosophical aspect of the project.

The crowdfunding approach is not limited to seeking funding. Involving the public in the process allows us to better understand the wishes of the wider community and also helps to ensure the solution is rolled out on a larger scale.

It is important to bear in mind that the Fully Solar Highway Project also aims to serve as a demonstration project and that, therefore, the true objective was, remains and will continue to be the global replacement of nuclear and/or coal-fired power stations.

The process can be visualised quite effectively.

We are offering this version to illustrate the point of this post:

As a reminder, if you would like to be notified when this crowdfunding campaign launches, you can sign up here: EnergyPier.ch

And to answer a frequently asked question: we do not share your email addresses with anyone

The next article will shed light on the fundamental concept of the Solar Highway Project, namely solar panel permaculture.

The series of articles on our Solar Highway Project is now organised as follows:

• Introduction to the series here,
• Links to blockchain,
• Crowdfunding and the solar highway (you’re here),
• Permaculture of solar panels,
• New: Solar highways and sustainability,
• and more to follow …

I look forward to speaking with you soon …

Laurent-David JOSPIN

Source: Ouvrir les yeux