Renewable Energy Side Hustles
It seems everyone now has or is looking for additional streams of income on top of their full-time jobs. The gig economy or side hustles have created opportunities for nearly everyone to make extra money working part-time and on their schedule.
From Uber, to food delivery, Fiverr, dog walking, and social media creators, there are so many options out there for anyone looking to add a little bit to their income.
But what about people interested in the renewable energy space? For them, we’ve put together a list of side hustles that have the potential to earn them enough to pay their phone bill, their rent, or even more in some cases. Check out the list below and let us know if we’ve missed any.
1. Earn monthly dividends with Energea.
Energea invests in large scale solar projects across a few different countries. Primarily U.S.A., Brazil, and South Africa at the time of this writing.
The way you earn money is by investing in these projects which are called PPA’s or Power Purchase Agreements (a whole separate article would need to be written to fully explain) which are basically solar projects that are installed to save a business, school, or other large entity, on their electricity bills. This is accomplished by installing a solar energy system in which the user pays for the electricity generated by the solar array at a reduced rate compared to their electric bill, to the investor who installed the system. This often saves the company, school or entity between 15% - 50%, thus creating the potential for the investor to earn a return.
Estimated returns according to Energea are between 7 - 15% and dividends are paid monthly. You also have the option to reinvest those dividends for compounding returns. One downside is that if you want to withdraw your shares purchased before 3 years, there is a 5% fee, but this does not apply to withdrawing dividends. So for example, if you invested $1,000, and earned 10% over 12 months, you would have earned $100 in dividends. Not a whole lot but much better than most banks!
Open an account with our link below and get $50 to be invested in the Community Solar Brazil portfolio.
https://www.energea.com/get-started/referral?r=00uhj8te2zmgXRepy4x7
2. Referral fees from solar installers
Most all solar installers will have some sort of referral fee program. This means if you refer someone to them and that person installs solar, you will earn a fee from the company. This is usually anywhere between $200 - $500 and the reason solar installers are happy to do this is because they often end up spending close to $1,000 to generate that same lead through other marketing efforts. For example, to generate a lead on Google typically costs close to $100 and you typically need to generate at least 10 of these to find one person who is serious and actually installs. So if you are able to find people or know someone who is planning to install solar and can refer this person to a solar installer, they would be happy to pay you for this rather than Google.
3. Leasing Land to developers
Not many people may fit this option but if you have land are willing to lease that to developers and it is suitable for solar, you could earn thousands per month. Many farmers are now turning to agrivoltaics because by leasing their land, they can earn much more than if they simply planted corn. Often 2 – 3 times more! And the land can still be used underneath the panels to grow plenty of other crops or for sheep to graze.
4. Integrating solar into your existing business
Many roofers now are adding solar into their product offering for many reasons. It is an additional stream of income first of all, but its also the best time to add solar, right after you have replaced your roof. Having the roof warranty and solar array warranty with the same company also is a huge benefit. But this option is not only for roofers. Many people want to add solar after they have replaced their old windows for higher efficiency windows. Or when they have added insulation, replaced a heat pump, or made other energy efficient improvements to their home.
5. Become a community solar organizer
You won’t need much money for this one but you will need time and effort. Organizing a community solar campaign can be a great way to get to know people in your community who are interested in renewable energy or just in saving money. By bringing together a group of people who are all interested in adding solar to their homes can mean big savings when approaching installers as a group. Discounts of 10 – 20% are common which can equal thousands of dollars saved on each installation. The organizers will earn a referral fee for each person referred. To get more of an idea of how this works, you can check out previous Solarize campaigns. Although you could keep this as small as your local neighborhood, HOA, or any other group you are involved in.