South African startup, The Sun Exchange, has announced its Sub-Saharan Africa expansion with a 1.9 MW Solar-Storage Project for Nhimbe Fresh in Zimbabwe. 
What is Sun Exchange?
Sun Exchange is the world’s first peer-to-peer solar leasing platform. Its members can buy and lease solar cells to communities near them, earning from the clean energy they create. Abraham Cambridge and Larry Temlock founded the company in 2015 to connect the world to the sun. 
Access to affordable energy is a vital driver of sustainable agriculture, which employs 52% of Africans. The sector contributes to 23% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP.
Users who buy solar cells lease them to facilities such as schools and hospitals under a 20-year contract.
The platform tracks local energy pricing and inflation. Additionally, it offers a clean and affordable alternative to generators, grid connections, and other conventional sources.
Key Project Milestones
The Sun Exchange addresses one of the key problems in agriculture: access to financing for clean energy .
Conventional energy sources remain easily accessible. Yet, they’re increasingly damaging as annual agricultural yield continues to show.
The Sun Exchange’s 19,000 members can earn rental income from the clean energy they generate and offset their carbon footprint. 35 South African schools and institutions benefit from the project, with others in line as the company successfully raised a Series A $4 million in June.
Pilot with Nhimbe Fresh
Nhimbe Fresh is a major agricultural fresh produce exporter in Zimbabwe. Its partnership with The Sun Exchange is set to launch a crowdsale for the first phase of a 1.9 megawatt (MW) solar and storage project. This will be the largest project of its kind yet and first beyond South Africa’s borders. It will supply power to the Nhimbe Fresh packhouse, cold store facilities, pump sites, and to its Churchill Farm.
Nhimbe Fresh is keen on doing business sustainably and with environmental responsibility. This partnership aligns with its vision to pursue a greater purpose in serving its communities and recognising its interdependence with the environment. It will certainly minimise their climate impact, energy costs while increasing their resilience and business efficiency, according to the Chairman, Edwin Masimba Moyo.
Nhimbe Fresh will operate on solar energy entirely, which will save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Moreover, the solar cells will be leased at a fixed price pegged to the dollar, to hedge against currency fluctuation, which would be a key concern for a project of this magnitude in Zimbabwe. 
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