Jonathan Cornelus

International MBA 2011 ISG - Business School

8, rue de Lota 75116 Paris

Sustainable development
Prof. Eric Britton

Term paper topic:

RENT-A-ROOF A sustainable business model using renewable energy

5000 words Jonathan.Cornelus@gmail.com Tel: +33 6 07 21 22 24

Abstract
Solar energy is developing very fast nowadays and is a major factor in the field of renewable energy sources worldwide. Besides the fact that solar energy is renewable and therefore not consuming scarce energy resources, it still has some other drawbacks like the fact that is space consuming betraying a relatively low efficiency. Space will as well become a scarce resource in the future especially in dense areas of the world where people will need energy in the future. From that point of view solar energy might be considered as consuming an ending resource as well. This term paper will investigate a business model that takes these factors into consideration and turn these weaknesses of solar energy into a business opportunity for the future. Future development of this business model could as well be up scaled to a nationwide sustainable energy supply infrastructure.

Table of contents

Abstract ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 2 Table of contents ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 3 Introduction: Solar Energy, a sustainable energy source................................ ............................. 4

A. The benefits of solar energy ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 5 Photovoltaics: a market expanding at full throttle ................................ ................................ .......... 5 Large scale solar energy production: still sustainable?................................ ................................ .... 5 Up to solar power supply 2.0................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 7 B. Current solar energy potential applied................................ ................................ .......................... 8 Photovoltaics, a potential recognized and mapped by the EU................................ ......................... 8 Photovoltaics in the United States: business as usual?................................ ................................ .. 10 City driven projects concerning sustainability and photovoltaics: -- New York, the example? -- ... 13 C. Rent-a-Roof: A sustainable business model................................ ................................ ................. 15 The business idea ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................... 15 Belgium, an ideal location ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 15 Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 17

Introduction:

Solar Energy, a sustainable energy source

The 21st century will unquestionably be the century where human kind will have to endure major changes to its development. Sustainable development will be key to be able to keep our living standards and ensuring them for our future generations. A key component in sustainable development is the usage of renewable energy to prevent fossil form perishing. Renewable energy is energy coming from natural sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. In 2008, about 19% of global final energy consumption came from renewable. The major part of this, about 13%, is coming from traditional biomass which is mainly used for individual heating and cooking. The remaining part is harvested industrially or with help of technology. 3.2% accounts for hydroelectricity. New renewable energies like wind, solar, geothermal and bio fuels account for another 2.7% and are growing very rapidly. Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used at the moment. This is generally the reason why so much effort is placed in investing in solar energy. To harvest solar energy, the most common way is to use solar panels. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive or active depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include mostly the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to a mower extent to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.

Geographic considerations Though electrical energy possesses a great deal of advantages like conversion to other types of energy or passive (free) transportation though conductors, it does however have important shortcomings like the fact that you can t store electrical energy (on large scale) and that transportation over long distances induces significant energy losses. This means that electrical power has to be produced in real time of consumption and at reasonable distance of where is consumed. As an example, producing photovoltaic electrical energy in the Sahara to export it to the US would be nonsense, not only the majority of the energy would be lost underway but the day production peak would be available as well at night in the US (production and consumption would be at different moments).

A. The benefits of solar energy

Photovoltaics: a market expanding at full throttle
A photovoltaic system (or PV system) is a system which uses one or more solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity. It consists of multiple components, including the photovoltaic modules, mechanical and electrical connections and mou ntings and means of regulating and/or modifying the electrical output. It follows a complicated industrial and technological scheme which is under continuous improvement.

Figure 1: Onshore photovoltaic electricity production

Photovoltaic production has been increasing by an average of 20 percent each year since 2002, making it a very fast-growing energy technology. At the end of 2009, the cumulative global PV installations surpassed 21,000 MW (megawatt), this is approximately one quarter of the power supply capacity installed in a country like France. Three leading countries; Germany, Japan and the US represent nearly 89% of the total PV capacity installed worldwide. Germany installed a record 3.8 GW (Gigawatt) of solar PV in 2009; in contrast, the US installed about 500 MW in 2009. The previous record, 2.6 GW, was set by Spain in 2008. Germany was also the fastest growing major PV market in the world from 2006 to 2007 industry observers speculate that Germany could install more than 4.5 GW in 2010 1

Large scale solar energy production: still sustainable?

A huge burst of solar energy production is ongoing at the moment. Up scaling solar energy sounds attractive, but when looked closely one can ask himself if solar energy consumes any other excesses of natural resources than fossil fuels is most of the time replaces. Actually it does consume a natural resource that is becoming rare in the future: space.
http://www.releasewire.org/03/2009/energy/global-solar-photovoltaic-market-analysis-and-forecasts-to2020/ 5
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As of November 2010, the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the world are the Finsterwalde Solar Park (Germany, 80.7 MW), Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant (Canada, 80 MW), Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 60 MW), the Strasskirchen Solar Park (Germany, 54 MW), the Lieberose Photovoltaic Park (Germany, 53 MW) (cf picture here below), and the Puertollano Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 50 MW). 2 Looking more closely at the recent Lieberhose photovoltaic park with a surface area of 163ha and a power of 53MW, recalculated, this results in an efficiency of 32 MW/km2. When this exercise is done with wind energy, the result is even worse. As example: recent UK Whitelee wind farm which is currently the biggest wind farm in Europe has a maximal power capacity of 322MW installed on 55km2 which results in an efficiency of 6 MW/km2. Another comparison is interesting when the same exercise is made with conventional power plants (using gas or nuclear plants), efficiencies differ with two or three orders of magnitude more, totalizing around 3000-4000 MW/km2.

Figure 2: The Lieberhose photovoltaic park - Germany

Figure 3: Natural gas driven power plant of Drogenbos - Belgium

This delta of values is obviously important. The picture above shows an aerial view of the capacity installed in Lieberhose Germany (163ha 53MW), it corresponds about 1/8 of the capacity that a small gas power plant could deliver as shown in the next picture of Drogenbos Belgium (11ha 400MW). When solar energy production is up scaled to nationwide supply, the related space requirements start to be an issue. Even if for certain areas or countries there is plenty of free space available, for others it is surely not the case. The space required for photovoltaic farms can be in competition with green are as which are as well highly valuable in a sustainable context. From economic point of view, in many areas of the world space is simply too costly to use it for these low value and vast space consuming applications. One has to take into consideration as well that these capacities remain idle at night time in the absence of light. This means that the usage of this space is lost about 50% of time.

http://www.pvresources.com/en/top50pv.php 6

Up to solar power supply 2.0

Taking the value of space into consideration, dedicating free land to implement solar panels can seem a waste of resources in areas where space is valuable. On the other hand, functionalized areas as residential, recreational or industrial areas have all nearly one thing in common, the virgin space on rooftops of the respective buildings involved in these areas. These free spaces are clearly an excess capacity of surface that could be used for integrating solar panels. The usage of this excess capacity has no disadvantage at all; the current infrastructure does not need to be modified and can readily accept these solar panels. The installation of solar panels does as well not impact the surrounding landscape as their implementation is very discrete (on the contrary of windmills / wind energy). Interesting in this concept is the fact that every consumer of power becomes a producer as well and can inject power on the network. This would contribute as well to a decentralized and integrated production of electricity, with risk reduction of localized power failures and minimization of power losses through wire transportation. If we push the integration even farther if solar panels are directly integrated as a final roof structure instead of being mounted on top of the existing roof structure. A traditional roof becomes obsolete. This is what is called Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), which are increasingly incorporated into new domestic and industrial buildings as a principal or anci llary source of electrical power. Typically, an array is incorporated into the roof or walls of a building. Roof tiles with integrated PV cells are also common. As such it is a very good example where sustainability, technology, society and economy walk ha nd in hand.

Figure 4: Example of a BIPV system on a roof top of a house

B. Current solar energy potential applied

Photovoltaics, a potential recognized and mapped by the EU
Worldwide the possibilities and potential for solar energy is acknowledged and since a couple of years correctly placed under investigation. The European Union also invested in the photovoltaic research. The European Union created the interactive on-line Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) which allows users to estimate solar energy performance at any given location in Europe. 3 The PVGIS drafted solar radiation and photovoltaic electricity potential country and regional maps for Europe and published them in 2007. 4 The maps represent yearly sum of global irradiation on horizontal and optimally inclined surface, 10 -years average of the period 19811990 [kWh/m2]. The same colour legend represents also potential solar electricity [kWh/kWp] generated by a 1 kWp5 system per year with photovoltaic modules mounted at an optimum inclination and assuming system performance ratio 0.75. The map is given in the figure on the next page. While it is perhaps no surprise that the solar energy potential of Southern Europe is higher than Northern Europe, the map shows that considerable potential exists in Europe for greater use of solar energy. This information is is extremely interesting for further development ideas concerning the Rent-a-roof business model proposed later on.

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps3/pvest.php ri M., Huld T.A., Dunlop E.D. Ossenbrink H.A., 2007. Potential of solar electricity generation in the European Union member states and candidate countries. Solar Energy, 81, 1295 1305, http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/. 5 Wp = Watt peak is the maximum power a solar cell can deliver under standardized conditions, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt_peak.
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Applied on a city like Brussels, if we would cover 50% of all roof surfaces with solar panels in the city, it would lead us to the following power supply calculation: The total surface of built buildings (=surface of roofs available as well) equals 127km. 6 50% of this surface totals 32km. Taking into consideration the actual efficiency of photovoltai c panels of around 100 Wp / m, w e arrive at a total power peak capacity of 64.000.000m x 100Wp/m = 6.400.000 kWp. If we cross this information with the map above (800 kWh produced yearly / kWp in Brussels), we arrive at an electrical power generation potential around 5 TWh. Knowing that the electricity consumption of Brussels in 2001 was 5,4 TWh 7, our exercise demonstrates the potential of solar panels on rooftops in the future. It could potentially make cities close to self sufficient in electricity (not considering night consumption). Other examples can be found like in the United States where the potential of photovoltaics is highlighted with the progress made in the build-in photovoltaic market. This will be discussed in following section as it is interesting to understand the reasoning and opportunities behind BIPV, especially for sustainable business development and further business model applications.
6 7

http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/leefmilieu/geo/bebouwde_gronden/ http://documentatie.leefmilieubrussel.be/documents/EnergieRapportFinal2001_nl.PDF
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Photovoltaics in the United States: business as usual?

As we mentioned before, the US has shown great interest in creating and developing business opportunities concerning using renewable energies. The potential in wind en solar energies is big given the nature and wideness of the territories of the Unites States. Because of the potential of solar energy and the way the United States uses this potential to create business and sustainable development projects, it is interesting to have a closer look on what and how the approach is handled, to create new ideas for our project Rent -A-Roof . Indeed, in the United States some business has emerged in several states concerning the renting of roof space to be able to place solar energy and photovoltaic equipment to retrieve solar energy and use the green power either to sell it or to use it for proper use. According to Solar Energy Industries Association s 8 president Mr Resch, the United States has some of the best solar resources in the world - resources that are more than double that of Germany, the current world leader in solar . With the right policies, solar could play a significant role in creating jobs, growing local economies and cutting energy costs for consumers and businesses, and getting away as well from oil dependency. The map here below depicts the potential in solar energy because it shows the efficiency of solar systems installed. 9

Figure 5: Photovoltaic efficiency in the US

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http://www.seia.org/ http://www.seia.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=342
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All around the US, homeowners are getting paid by their energy utility to have solar panels installed. That s because power companies have an urgent need for roof space. They re in a race against the clock to replace ever greater portions of the regular energy supply by power sourced from renewables. The trend began with deals between energy companies and various large companies and local municipalities to install solar panels on large premises in return for a fee. One example is ProLogis 10, a large distributor in California, getting solar energy from systems installed and run by outside energy companies. The first such deal was when General Motors got solar panels installed on the roofs of its Spain pro duction facilities. 11 Now the energy companies are beginning to tap the residential sector. The inherent logic of this development is obvious; once they ve got local authority approval, energy companies can extend their solar parks quickly and with relatively little hassle by fixing normal residents up with solar power. Home owners are interested because they get a fee for renting out their roofs to professionally managed solar panels. It s hard to imagine a better way to reduce your footprint. Despite the compelling logic of the roof rental schemes, the cost/savings equation of the plans of Duke Energy12 in North Carolina aren t immediately sky rocketing but remain motivating for the development plan. Duke recently became the latest in a spate of energy companies to announce it would start renting the roofs of ordinary houses for solar power generation. One could argue that Duke, which aside from the Carolinas is also present in parts of the Midwest, found a vital niche because not everybody can afford decent solar panels and this offers people the chance to participate in the solar revolution. Duke will invest $50 million and expected generated energy will be enough to power 1,300 houses. Those numbers might not mean much at first glan ce, but the New York Times states it s a lot of money given that this output represents less than one-tenth of one percent of Duke s customer base in North Carolina. Also, the company is charging every residential customer in North Carolina eight cents a month for its investment in solar energy, whether they are consumers of green energy or not. Duke had to tone down its plans earlier on because the North Carolina Utilities Commission, a consumer advocacy organization, blocked the company s plans to extend its solar presence on the roofs of 800 houses. Despite resistance it s very likely that Duke s project will be extended to thousands of sites throughout the state. That s because the company s plans fit in well with the overall strategy that the state of North Carolina adopted in recent years. The state requires 12.5% of its energy mix to be made of renewables by 2021. Duke says it s going to be playing a central

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http://www.prologis.com/capital-deployment/sustainable-development.html ; http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15105878 11 http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/01/rent-out-roof-space-to-energy-companies/ 12 http://www.duke-energy.com/north-carolina/renewable-energy/nc-solar-distributed-generationprogram.asp 11

role in this development. But the company s plans to find the funding for its investment by charging the customers for it might not make everybody happy. Another company that is aggressively moving center stage is SoCal Edison 13. It is leasing roof space of ProLogis as the first step towards becoming the largest solar energy provider in the US. SoCal Edison has used solar energy as part of its generation portfolio since the 1980s. Today, SoCal Edison buys 65 percent of all the solar power generated in the United States. Energy companies are also at the heart of very ambitious plans that politicians in Wisconsin are rolling out, stepping up the generation of home grown solar power. Wisconsin plans to embark on a state-wide solar power project within one year, which involves collaborative forms. The state has commissioned a study into the feasibility of large scale solar power generation. Wisconsin s future solar plans will be a hyperized version of what s going on already. A key solar energy project, Second Nature 14, already pays customers if they generate power contributing to the electric grid. In the next two years, home -brewn energy output is targeted to rise to over 680 kilowatts. Second Nature is a program developed by Alliant Energy, an electricity company devoted to invest in renewable energy sources. The program allows electric customers in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin to support electricity generated from renewable resources. Wisconsin is investing around $5.5 million in investment in solar energy and the state s government has strong backing of the Sierra Club, which itself initiated the idea of setting up a state-wide solar plan. New, independent, companies are also getting in on the game of offer ing people the option of renting out their roofs. Outside renewable energy providers will pay for, install, own and operate the solar systems. All the home owners do is agree to pay a rental fee for the solar electricity generated based on their historical usage at the previous year s rate. Cost reductions of around 20% are feasible. The brief overview on what is happening all over the United States on a state and business level was very useful. It showed clearly the opportunities, the stakeholders and the way to deal with this business in a sustainable way. It is absolutely obvious now that solar energy and photovoltaics are interesting for the future, a renewable energy source and the way to go about in diminishing the human footprint on earth. Besides a state-level integration, also some cities are showing interest in developing solar energy possibilities. Definitely cities which are well located and where buildings and rooftops are big, and there is a high need for energy. The city that one immediately thinks of is New York City. Indeed, what if New York City, the big apple, invested in solar energy, photovoltaics, placed on top of the buildings and eventually on the glass parts of the building. The city where towers are higher one than the other, whe re the demand of energy
13 14

http://www.sce.com/powerandenvironment/renewables/solar/default.htm http://www.alliantenergy.com/Environmental/SecondNature/010561 12

is huge but the opportunities and possibilities as high It truly is a hot topic, because recently, the New York Times dedicated a couple of articles on the sustainable development idea of using rooftops for solar energy.

City driven projects concerning sustainability and photovoltaics: -- New York, the example? -According to a study of the City University of New York, published in June 2011, t wo-thirds of New York City s rooftops are suitable for solar panels and could jointly generate enough energy to meet half the city s demand for electricity at peak periods, according to a new, highly detailed interactive map 15. The map, which shows the solar potential of each of the city s one -million-plus buildings, is a result of a series of flights over the city by an airplane equipped with a laser system known as Lidar, for light detection and ranging. 16 Swooping over the five boroughs last year, the plane collected precise information about the shape, angle and size of the city s rooftops and the shading provided from trees and structures around them. The map is at the Web site of the City University of New York. City officials said the information should advance efforts to increase the city s reliance on solar power as part of its energy mix, reducing the metropolis s greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, the images show that 66.4 percent of the city s buildings have roof space suitable for solar panels, said the CUNY team, which developed the m ap in partnership with the city and the federal Department of Energy. The rooftops could generate up to 5,847 megawatts from hundreds of thousands of buildings, the team said, compared with the negligible 6.5 megawatts yielded now from about 400 installations. At those output levels, the panels could meet 49.7 percent of the current estimated daytime peak demand and about 14 percent of the city s total annual electricity use, the officials said. The figures consider typical weather conditions. Yet harnessing solar power also involves overcoming barriers like the upfront costs of installation, the availability of installers and the ability of utilities to integrate solar power into their grid. Solar power is projected to grow into a $12 -billion-a-year industry this year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, but the sector is still in its infancy. Nationwide, the installed solar capacity is just 2,300 MW, less than half the rooftop potential of New York City.

15 16

http://nycsolarmap.com/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/science/earth/16solar.html 13

The solar map allows New Yorkers to type in the address of a building where they live or work and find out how much solar power the roof can yield and at what cost. The Web site indicates what government financial incentives are available to help cover the costs and calculates how long it would take a building s owner to recoup the costs in energy savings. For the more environmentally minded, the map also shows how much carbon dioxide emissions each property would avoid, in pounds and by the number of trees that, if planted, could absorb that amount of emissions. This map is actual very interesting and we could actually use the technology to see whether it would be useful to introduce the same mapping system for Flanders and more specifically as a city take Brussels or Antwerp. The map was created via a program called Lidar. Lidar produces images of structures, trees, wetlands and other surface terrain by shooting laser pulses from an aircraft and measuring the time it takes the pulses to bounce back. Its data will also be used t o update flood maps. More than a dozen cities already use similar maps, although not necessarily prepared with the Lidar system, and some of the maps have contributed to broadening the use of solar power. In San Francisco, the number of solar installatio ns on private roofs rose to more than 2,300 this year, from 551 in 2007, when the solar map was introduced along with financial incentives like tax credits and rebates. It s sort of a one-stop shop for people to understand what the technology is, does i t make financial sense, are others doing this, said Danielle Murray, the renewable energy program manager for San Francisco s Environment Department. You realize that you re not alone, and that it s a smart investment. In New York, David Bragdon, director of the Mayor s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said the city could realistically add thousands of megawatts in solar power. To that end, Mr. Bragdon said, it has been working on streamlining the installation permit process and relaxing building regulations to accommodate the panels, in addition to pursuing larger-scale solar projects at landfills and other sites. This project in NYC to combine in a sustainable way solar energy, photovoltaics and use it as a renewable energy source is the absolute key to success in future green power projects.

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C. Rent-a-Roof: A sustainable business model

The business idea
A lot of people were reticent to invest in renewable energies like Photovoltaic solar panels or small wind turbines because of the costs they involve. Also, the return in investment period of the operation is often on a long term and difficult to define in the past. This has changed over the years through technological improvement: today the breakeven point is reached after 7 to 10 years, making of solar energy an ideal investment for businesses and private owners. Rent-a-Roof for instance, this start-up company would use the sustainable development potential highlighted previously as a business opportunity . The core of the business model is to rent excess capacity of roof space from owners (private, industrial or collectivities) to install photovoltaic solar panels and benefit from the energy production. This is a win-win situation as on the one hand the roof top owner gets a compensation for the usage of the roof surface which is idle in normal times. On the other hand, rent a roof has access to space to position solar panels at very low cost. This business model creates value which is shared by the different stakeholders. What is the difference for the owner between renting his roof and installing solar panels by his own and for his own benefit alone? It is simply the capital investment which h e is not required to do anymore, while he still benefits from the ener gy production. Rent-a-roof could also work together with real estate development investors, taking the investment of roof tops at charge while directly integrating them into the new buildings. The additional costs of a traditional rooftop installation would be saved in that case.

Belgium, an ideal location

Sunny regions are naturally tipped of course to use solar energy. However the amount sunlight is not the only parameter to take into account for implementing this business idea. The target region for implementation of this business plan needs to be a high potential area where solar energy is in high development at the moment and considered as a hot topic . This is of importance as in that case, relatively little effort needs to be taken to intro duce this energy source since people are naturally aware and sensitive to renewable energy sources.

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In Flanders - Belgium for instance, the amount of solar panels installed by professionals has increased from 1000 in 2006 to 3000 in 2010. In the Nether lands, 170.000 households have already installed photovoltaic units on their property. With 787 MW, Belgium is listed 6th in the EU countries concerning general installed capacity (European average of 29,33 MW, lead of Germany with 17370 MW)and 4 th concerning the installed capacity of photovoltaics, i.e. 72,6W per capita (European average is 58,5 W per capita).

The photovoltaic barometer is a very useful document to see the increase of photovoltaics and solar energy sources and leaves sufficient material to consider where to implement future projects in the European Union.17 When analyzing the graph on the side it is clear that not only the south of Europe is considering solar energy but that Germany and Belgium are at the top of the list as well. Additionally, the government needs to be favourable, which is the case in Belgium. Since several years, various provincial Figure 6: solar energy per capita and municipal governments in the Flanders region have been providing grants for investment in photovoltaic and/or solar thermal energy systems. In Belgium, Solar equipments are subsidized for 20% of the cost of the solar infrastructure, which can play an important role in the development of Rent -a-Roof. The Belgian government has as well established target values of proportions of renewable energy proportions into the actual energy mix. This target value is fixed at 13% of the total energy production by 2020. Rent -a-Roof is an ideal partner to reach these objectives. Actually only about 3.2% are achieved which is a very nice growing incentive for the future. 18 Another specific factor for implementing this business model is to select an area where the value of surface area is high, meaning that free areas are scarce and costly. In that particular case, the Rent-a-Roof business model will have the maximum added value, since occupying open spaces only for solar energy production will be the least capital effective. Therefore synergic use of rooftop space makes a lot more sense. A good indicator to define adequate countries that fulfil this condi tion to implement Rent-a-Roof is the population density. This is given in the following table.

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18

http://www.eurobserv-er.org/pdf/baro202.pdf http://economie.fgov.be/nl/consument/Energie/hernieuwbare_energieen 16

The data shows that Belgium is the country with one of the highest population density in Europe. This makes of Belgium an ideal candidate. Down to the details, a good commercial proposal would be to compensate the owner of the rooftops by returning a part of the produced energy directly or to provide a fixed quota of energy per year for free. This way the compensation happens immediately and could potentially work around taxation of redistributed money streams. Further examples can also be taken from the companies described above as Duke or SoCallEdison. Geographically Brussels seems an ideal starting point for this business plan but could expand very rapidly to the complete territory of Belgium.

At last a short recommendation to develop the business plan of Rent-A-Roof , the possibility of mapping the potential in Brussels using the technologies and knowledge put forward by the CUNY and the Lindar System as discussed could be very interesting and instructive.

B e lg iu m B u l g a ri a C z e ch R e p u b lic D e n m a rk G e rm a n y E sto n i a I re l a n d G re e c e S p a in F ra n c e I ta l y C y p ru s L a tv i a L i th u a n i a L u x e m b o u rg H u n g a ry N e th e rl a n d s A u stri a P o la n d P o rtu g a l R o m a n ia S lo ve n ia S lo va kia F in la n d Sw e de n Ice la n d L i e c h te n ste i n N o rw a y S w i tz e rl a n d C ro a ti a F o rm e r Y u g o sl a v R e p u b l i T u rk e y

2008 353,1 68,7 135 127,5 229,9 30,9 64,7 85,9 90,8 101,4 202,7 85,7 36,4 53,6 189 107,9 487,2 101,1 121,9 115,3 93,6 100,4 110,3 17,5 22,5 3,2 221,7 15,6 191,2 78,4 82,2 92,3

Figure 7: Population density of European countries (#/km) Source: Eurostat

Conclusion
Deeper investigation into the matter of renewable energy and more particularly solar energy has shown to be a very promising source of energy in the future where sustainability, technology and society can be combined into a business model where value can be created. Rent-a-Roof is a viable business opportunity as similar projects have already seen daylight in different locations like the US. In Belgium though, it is still unique and recommended for implementation as well. This country has a lot of potential since excess capacity has one of the highest values in Europe, which is a major opportunity for the Rent-a-Roof business model. A core strength of the Rent-a-Roof business model is that is does not require virgin space resources for energy production but can accommodate with existing infrastructure which is modified, almost unnoticeably. No impact for the surrounding living environment is visible

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and the energy production become s perfectly integrated into society, where energy consumers are producers at the same time. Scaling-up this business model could signify the creation of a worldwide industry participating in a sustainable economy and as well paving the road to total renewable electricity production for a cleaner environment. Even if solar energy is not a big player in the actual worldwide energy mix, it might develop to a powerful sustainable energy source where humans might end up just the way mother earth is getting its energy from; it all comes down from the sun. And in the attempt of human efforts to reach ultimately the same sustainable goal, just as a Benjamin Franklin once stated Energy and persistence conquer all things , our Rent-A-Roof motivation might state Solar energy and persistence will conquer all things .

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