Open Source Solar Energy Contract
Discussion
Dana Blankenhorn:
"“The open source model offers a structure, and it allows for continuous innovation” on contract terms, he said. That need for change is the difference between the standard he wants for solar and other standard contracts like those for interest rate swaps.
“Before counter parties used to negotiate things individually” on swaps, “but the industry got together as a group, 10-20 dominant players with hundreds of competitors, and now there's a standard contract.”
A solar PPA, however, would need to account for many changing variables. The cost of panels. The value of the power. The cost of installation. Local or state regulations.
“This is a contract that the community contributes to. And that includes the customers, who have to buy in, the vendors and our competitors, it includes the financial community. Those are the key stakeholders.
The idea is to get to a contract that's recognized as fair, that balances the needs of the various stakeholders, and becomes easily adopted, standardized. Today, for a large contract it can take weeks, tens of thousands of dollars. We're trying to get it to a few days.
The text of what results from this process won't necessarily be under an open source license like the General Public License or Apache Software License. More likely, it will be offered as a copyright grant under what is called a Creative Commons license. It's the same license some college professors use to extend the reach of their research materials.
But the process of completing a license draft could eventually become software."