Mosaic, the first company to crowdsource investments to finance solar projects, recently launched Mosaic Places, a technology platform that grants the public an opportunity to nominate community centers, schools, libraries, places of worship and local businesses to go solar.
The site is seeded with nearly 300,000 places across the United States. The platform asks as little as a petition – people just click “support” to participate, and Mosaic will match supporters with dollars. For every 50 people that click “support” on a Place’s page, Mosaic will donate $100 to put solar on it. In addition, homeowners who go solar through a Mosaic Place’s page will be eligible to receive a $500 gift, which they can donate to put solar on that Place.
Mosaic and actor Mark Ruffalo launched a New Year’s pledge asking people to #PutSolarOnIt in 2014. With thousands of incoming pledges for the #PutSolarOnIt campaign, Mosaic built a platform that would help people achieve their commitments. The product launch comes days before the first national #PutSolarOnIt Day of Action, June 21st.
While a solar installation was installed, on average, every four minutes in the US in 2013, the nation has put solar on less than 1% of the homes and commercial buildings that would financially benefit from solar on their roofs. Ideally, the funds raised will bridge the gap for community buildings whose solar installations may need a few thousand dollars to be financeable by conventional means.
Any individual can use Mosaic Places by going to www.putsolaronit.com, finding or adding a Place and sharing their chosen Place with their friends to get supporters and raise funds to put solar on it. Schools, places of worship and other community groups can fundraise to put solar on their buildings by asking their community members to support their Place’s page and put solar on their homes through their Place’s page.
“We have been dreaming about this product for years,” says Billy Parish, Mosaic president. “It’s based on our belief that every building can go solar if the community is behind it. Mosaic has built a product that enables everyone to participate in transitioning the country to 100% clean energy.”
Mosaic Places is co-launching with over a dozen large non-profit partners: The Alliance for Climate Education is using Mosaic Places to empower thousands of high school students across the nation to influence parents to go solar. Interfaith Power & Light will be using Mosaic Places to build campaigns around places of worship going solar. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy will use Mosaic Places to take institutions solar across the Southeast United States. REVERB will be using Mosaic Places to help musicians and their fans take their favorite places solar.
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June 21 National Day Of Action: #PutSolarOnIt
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