If you have solar panels on your house you are eligible to receive free SolarCoins in proportion to how much energy you can generate (specifically each year you get your solar system’s capacity in kW multiplied by a fixed ratio of 1.314). I have previously described the process of installing a SolarCoin Wallet and shown how to register a claim for SolarCoins.

I went through these steps for the two solar arrays on my house (front and rear, installed at different times). Officially you should receive any coins you claim in the first week of the month following your claim.

I am pleased to confirm that my coins came through this week exactly on schedule. The amounts are almost exactly what I expected (the small discrepancies likely relate to whether you calculate the time the panels have been operating in years, months or weeks, for example).

The amounts I received were:

• Rear roof: 33.9 coins (3.7kW x 7 years x 1.314)
• Front roof: 18.6 coins (3.2kW x 4 years x 1.314)

The total came to 52.4775 SolarCoin which at their current value is worth about $18, so about £14.

If you own a solar array you can claim free SolarCoins. To do so you will need the MCS Installation Certificate provided by your installer (or equivalent) in electronic form (e.g. PDF or JPG).

Once you’ve created your SolarCoin Wallet you need to go to SolarCoin.org to create an account.

Click on the Login / Register button to get to the Log in page, then select the Create new account tab. There enter your Email address and your preferred Username, and click to enter the prompted security code.

You will then be sent an email to verify your email address – click the link in this email to activate your account. You will then be able specify a password on the site (as usual, I recommend creating a new one at PasswordsGenerator.net).

Login and you’ll see your My Account page. Click on the link to add a solar facility; this is also available as a menu item in the right sidebar – Add Solar Facility.

On the Create Solar Facility Registration page enter details as follows:

Facility identifier: this is just the name you want to give your solar array so you know what’s being referred to – it could just be ‘my solar’ or, if you have multiple systems, perhaps the property address and, say, ‘front roof’, ‘rear roof’, etc.

First Name, Last Name, Email address : these are self-explanatory. The Address is that of the property with the solar array.

Facility Nameplate Capacity: This is the power of the solar array in kW, and should be specified clearly on the Installation Certificate, typically as Declared Net Capacity. For most UK residential systems it will be between 2.0 and 4.0.

Facility Interconnection Date: This is the date the solar array started generating, and will be specified on the Installation Certificate.

Documentation: Press the Choose file button and navigate to and select your copy of the MCS Certificate, or equivalent supporting documentation. If you have an online system that monitors your solar array then you can also enter its website address here, but it’s not required.

SolarCoin Public Wallet Address: This is an address in your SolarCoin Wallet where you want your free SolarCoins to be deposited. To find it, start up the Wallet app, wait for it to synch, then press the Receive button.

Initially this will just show a single Address value – this is what you need so right-click it and select Copy Address. Go back to the SolarCoin website and Paste. Valid addresses begin with the number 8.

(NB: You can have as many receive addresses as you want, so if you have more than one solar array you can choose to press the New Address button and create more, one for each array. In this case you should also right-click in the Label column, select Edit and give each address a name to help identify it.)

Optional: Were you referred by someone to register with SolarCoin? (Click to open): Click on this to open it up – it would be appreciated if you could fill this in with my details. It won’t cost you anything and will earn me about 10p per referral.

Referral Resource Contact Email: Copy flipener@gmail.com and paste it there.

Referral Resource SolarCoin Public Wallet Address: Copy 8ccFy7EaMPziwwe2qH3SkfEtJB4k6qL9gt and paste it there.

The remaining entries can be completed or not as you wish. Click Save. Your solar array is now registered and you will have an entry in the right-hand sidebar under My Solar Facilities.

Next: First SolarCoin Claim Arrives

Go to the SolarCoin website and download the SolarCoin Wallet – for most people it will be the link ‘Download SolarCoin Core 2.1.8 for Windows’. Once downloaded, run the installer.

Press Next to go through the various steps of the installation (accept the terms of the License Agreement, select the install folder, install elements, etc.) accepting the defaults. On completion it will run the SolarCoin Wallet (SolarCoin-qt.exe). Initially no wallet will be found so select No (to import a wallet) and it will create you a new, empty wallet.

As often with an install (at least on Windows) you may be asked about allowing access through your firewall. With Private Networks only selected, click on Allow Access.

At this point the SolarCoin Wallet will launch. The first thing it will need to do is synchronise to the SolarCoin blockchain.

That will take some time to complete (about an hour, depending on your system and Internet speeds). You will then need to enter a password or phrase to continue – for example, you can get a good 16 character password from Passwords Generator. Record the password, then enter it into the SolarCoin app. As it says, if you lose the password you will lose access to your coins.

Once entered, the app will restart and ask you enter the password/phrase. It will then open up on an Overview page showing your current balance – zero (‘Unconfirmed’) at this point. It will likely be continuing to synchronise at this point (showing ‘Syncing…’ in the bottom status bar) so just let it run.

When it is finished (it may only take a few minutes) the status bar will read ‘In Sync’.

Next: How to Claim SolarCoins