Solar system design, solar electricity retail, and off-grid power for the places the grid does not reach: film sets, festivals, farms, mines and, one day, Mars.
A question from a schoolboy, answered over a career.
When I was eight I had a solar-powered calculator. I could not stop thinking about the little strip of cells along the top that made it work without a battery. One day I came home from school and asked my mum why we couldn't join lots of these cells together and power our houses with them.
8.
Four tiny solar cells along the top of a pocket calculator. No battery, no plug, just light. This is where it started. Try shading the cells with your cursor.
"Because it would be too expensive."
She was right, at the time. I have spent my working life since then helping to prove that the answer could change.
She was also the one who first shared her love of renewable energy with me. She drew me a diagram of a geothermal power plant when I was ten, and in the early nineties she showed me Britain's first wind farm, in Cornwall.
Fifteen years on
On a roof in Cornwall
Roll on fifteen years and I was on the rooftops of houses in Cornwall, where I am from, installing solar panels. The cost had come down far enough that the schoolboy's idea was simply good business.
MSc
The science of climate change
My master's degree was in the science of climate change. My dissertation assessed the feasibility of solar and wind power in the UK.
2008
A solar installation company
I founded my own solar installation company in Cornwall.
Benbole Farm
Utility-scale solar in Cornwall
I co-developed Benbole Farm in Cornwall, one of the UK's first utility-scale solar power plants.
South Africa
A national rollout
I moved to South Africa to help with the nationally crucial rollout of solar across the country.
Sun Exchange
Solar finance for anyone, anywhere
I founded and led Sun Exchange, a solar finance platform that let people around the world crowd-invest in commercial and industrial solar projects in South Africa.
Cinergy
Mobile solar for temporary industries
I set up Cinergy to bring mobile solar and battery power to industries that solar had never reached: those that are off-grid by nature and temporary by design, such as film production, events, agriculture and mining.
Earth & Wire
Private access to utility-scale solar
I am leading the development of Earth & Wire, a platform that gives businesses private access to utility-scale solar through wheeling, and lets them share surplus solar and battery capacity with each other.
Next
Mars
The hardest off-grid site there is. I build open engineering tools for solar power on the Martian surface. Read more about solar on Mars.
Expertise
What I can help you with.
Independent advice from someone who has installed, developed, financed and operated solar. I work with developers, energy buyers, production companies, investors and research teams.
Design
Solar PV system design
Rooftop, ground-mount and hybrid systems from concept to detailed design. Yield modelling, layout and shading, string and inverter sizing, battery integration, and independent review of other designers' work.
Markets
Solar electricity retail
Selling solar power to customers who do not host the plant. Wheeling over the network, private supply agreements, tariff design, and sharing surplus solar and battery capacity between businesses.
Off-grid
Off-grid solar and battery systems
Stand-alone and hybrid solar, battery and generator systems for sites with no grid connection. Load profiling, sizing for the worst day rather than the average one, and strategies that keep the generator off for as long as possible.
Studies
Feasibility and performance studies
Will solar work here, what will it save, and is it performing as it should? Site feasibility anywhere in the world, and analysis of real monitoring data against modelled yield to find and explain the gaps.
Capital
Solar finance and project development
From an early-stage site to a financeable project. Development, commercial structuring, investor materials, and new ways to fund solar, drawing on my experience building a crowd-investment platform.
Research
Solar power on Mars
Surface solar resource, dust, seasons and storage for crewed and robotic missions, with an open yield and sizing tool built for engineers and researchers.
A unit base in a forest, a studio on a remote island, a festival in a desert. Productions and events need serious power for weeks or months, often with no grid in sight, and have traditionally run it all on diesel generators.
I specialise in replacing as much of that diesel as possible with solar and batteries. I founded a mobile solar and battery company that powers film and TV productions in South Africa, and I now advise productions and their power suppliers on locations anywhere in the world.
Location power feasibility
Before you commit: the load, the sun at that location in that season, logistics, and how much diesel solar and batteries can realistically displace.
Hybrid system design
Solar, battery and generator sized to work together, with clear rules for when the generator runs. Unit bases, base camps, studios, lighting and catering loads.
Performance studies
Analysis of real monitoring data from inverters and batteries, comparing what the system did with what it could have done, and why.
Fuel, cost and carbon reporting
Diesel saved, cost per kWh and emissions avoided, in a form your sustainability team, broadcaster or financier can use.
Load profileWhat the production or event actually draws, hour by hour.
Site and sunSolar resource for that location and season.
SizingSolar, battery and generator, sized for the hardest days.
On siteDeployment support and live monitoring.
ResultsA clear report of energy, fuel, cost and carbon.
Film and TV productionsUnit bases and base campsStudiosFestivalsBrand activationsOutdoor broadcastsRemote camps
Every base on Mars will be an off-grid power system, with weaker sunlight, planet-wide dust storms, a year almost twice as long as ours and nights cold enough to threaten a battery. These are the same questions I answer for film sets and farms, pushed to the limit.
I built Mars-PVGIS, an open solar yield and PV plus battery sizing tool for any site on the Martian surface, in any season.
≈586W/m² mean sunlight above the atmosphere (Earth: 1,361)
+45%more sunlight at perihelion than at aphelion
24h 39mlength of a sol, the Martian day
668.6sols in a Mars year, about 687 Earth days
Speaking and press
On stage and in print.
SpeakingTechCrunch Disrupt Berlin, 2017On stage as chief executive of Sun Exchange, talking about financing solar with crowd investment.ProfileAfrican Power & Energy Elites, 2019A two-page profile on leadership, solar with storage, and the future of the energy system.
"I genuinely want the world to improve – it makes me sad and frustrated that things are operating in modes which are incredibly outdated and no longer required."
From my profile in African Power & Energy Elites 2019
Available for keynotes, panels, podcasts and media on solar, off-grid power and solar on Mars. Get in touch.
Contact
Tell me about your project.
Whether it is a solar plant, a production on location, an energy supply question or a mission to Mars, I would like to hear about it.
abecambridge@gmail.com
Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Working worldwide.
