No risk, no capital solar thermal?
My Clean Break column in the Toronto Star this week takes a look at a company called Mondial Energy Inc., a solar thermal services company. Similar to what SunEdison does for solar PV systems, Mondial will own and operate a solar thermal system at a client’s site — say, a hospital, hotel, apartment building or school — and then get paid under a 10-year contract for the amount of natural gas or electricity that client saves related to their hot water bill. The customer wins by having a percentage of their water heating come from renewable energy and by being partially shielded by increases in natural gas/electricity prices. Mondial’s private shareholders win by getting what Alex Winch, founder and president, describes as a return on investment “greater than” 10 per cent. It’s an interesting model, and Winch is attracting much interest. He’s got a number of installations in Toronto and is in negotiation for projects in the United States, including a hotel and an casino.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
