Solar Dividends provide a brand-new approach to solving two of the world’s biggest problems: global warming and global poverty. We can slow down global warming because solar panels generate carbon-free electricity that can replace fossil fuels. And we can raise people out of poverty by distributing the money that solar panels generate when their electricity is sold.

Programs to address global warming and global poverty have been around for decades, yet the problems persist. Solar Dividends give us a new way to tackle both problems at once, by using one to solve the other. Solar Dividends provide advantages that are not available to the individual solutions to these problems.

Solar Dividends are a better way to generate basic incomes because:

• They money does not come from taxes, but from an investment in revenue-generating equipment.
• The money won’t run out if the solar panels are maintained and replaced as needed.
• Solar energy is available all over the world, so basic incomes can be generated in all countries
• The money carries no stigma of “welfare” because it is generated from an investment in equipment that generates something valuable to society: clean electricity
• The program need not be run by a government, but can be an arrangement between a nonprofit organization and the local utility company.

And Solar Dividends are a better way to tackle global warming because:

• We have a new reason to install lots of solar panels: eliminating poverty.
• The program can pay for itself from the revenue that it generates
• No international treaty is needed to get started.
• Each country can customize Solar Dividends to match their own needs and conditions.
• Solar Dividend programs can operate at any scale, including towns, counties, states, and nations.