BeFinSol – Development of crowd financing models for large-scale solar thermal sytems

Based on the experience gathered from the realisation of the demonstration object, more plant operators are to be motivated to integrate large-scale solar thermal systems into their heating plants. From this point on, the use of solar heat for might wide-spread to similar applications (block heating, integration into industrial processes, etc.).

The use of solar heat yields to following advantages:

• Increased efficiency of biomass boilers over the year
• Reduction of emissions during light-load boiler operation
• Increased lifetime of light-load and peak-load boilers
• Reduced need of biomass and therefore preventing mid-term and long-term shortage of biomass
• Die variablen Wärmegestehungskosten sinken
• Guarenteed affordability and supply guarentee

These advantages are opposed by the following difficulties with current business models:

• High initial investment
• Banks ask for high capital ratio and certainties
• Low return of investment

This study investigates if adapted crowd investing models are suited to reduce the risk for all participants (investors and operators) and at the same time gives an incentive to adopt a positive investment decision.