Solarcoin Awards Coins for Solar Power Generation

The brainchild of Nick Gogerty, principal at Thoughtful Capital Group and self-proclaimed "Deep finance geek", solarcoin is designed to reward people for producing energy via photovoltaic solar panels.

The initiative is designed to encourage the generation of solar energy over a 40-year period.

Coins would be awarded based on a proof of work, but instead of computational, the proof would be mostly physical - an organization or company would be given a solarcoin for every 1Mw/hour of energy that they produced using their photovoltaic solar arrays.

You can buy them on the open market - Gogerty anticipates a price in the $20-$30 window over the next 3-5 years if all goes to plan - or you can get them as a reward for your solar power generation.

"There are regimes in different countries, regulatory and others, where they track solar energy production to give back incentives."

People in the US will be able to provide their Solar Renewable Energy Certificate ID for the appropriate quantity of coins.

The solarcoin site says that every megawatt-hour of electricity generated through a solar PV panel avoids more than 1,500 lbs of carbon dioxide, along with over five lbs of sulfur dioxide, and almost two lbs of nitrogen oxide.

Rooftop installers now offer residential customers the chance to lease the solar equipment, avoiding the up front capital expenditure while taking advantage of the power benefits.

Customers are likely to race to install solar in the next couple of years, because the US government's Solar Investment Tax Credit runs out in 2016.

These massive providers generally build large solar arrays out in the desert.