The energy grid that we are used to today may soon look completely different. Instead of having those big power plants sending all the energy all over in order to make it into our homes, we may be able to generate power locally with solar powers and the homeowner may become the makers and traders of power instead of just passive consumers. If this does happen, it is going to be thanks to the blockchain technology that helps make this possible. Blockchain technology would be one of the best options to use in order to keep track of the electrons that would flow through the system. While most of us are still just familiar with using this technology to keep track and authenticate the transactions that we do on the Bitcoin network, there are so many other potentials uses that we can enjoy when the blockchain is added in. In the future, it is possible that blockchain technology could help mediate transactions of energy through a cooperative and decentralized network.
A researcher from the Scanergy project, Mike Mihaylov, sees prosumers who will purchase and sell home-generated power that would use an alternative currency, such as cryptocurrency, called NRGcoin. Whenever someone ends up with some excess power that they won’t be using at the time, they can just add it back into the smart grid in your area. Then, if the consumer does need some more power, such as on a cloudy day when their grid isn’t making as much, they can purchase that power from someone else in the network. Or they can sell on another exchange to earn traditional money.
There are going to be a few different advantages to using NRGcoin. First, it is going to be an incentive for people to participate because there will already be someone in the market to take the power they produce. The second benefit is that the price is going to be fixed and added into the protocol that will run the whole system, so it won’t change just because the government makes changes to the law. And third, the energy retailers won’t have to spend time paying households with real money because they could use digital currency instead to make things easier. The consumer can save that currency to purchase energy when they need it and a few can take it out if they want.
The NRGcoin will give the consumer protection against any changes in policy because the payment is going to be built into the protocol that runs it all, something that is now decentralized away from the government. One kilowatt-hour of energy is always going to equal on NRGcoin and no one is allowed to change it. Right now, one of the biggest issues against solar panels in the market is that there are a lot of regulations and these could easily change. For example, there may be a time when the government will not subsidize this power so the payback period will lengthen out and could cost them a lot. This is not something that would happen with the NRGcoin and the help of blockchain technology.
Scanergy is using some real-world data that they can gather from the Belgian energy grid to help them figure out how this kind of system would be able to work in real life. In addition, they are working on demonstrations with model villages to see how this would work using solar panels, Raspberry Pi smart meters, and spotlight projects that were able to shine some light from above. A lot of the simulations and theoretical parts are done and it is just a matter of putting this into practice and seeing how it works in real life.
Although there has been a lot of interest in using this kind of blockchain technology for energy trading, including a pilot that is starting up in Brooklyn, it is still something that needs a lot of work before it has been used in scale around the world. Right now, our energy market is highly regulated which slows down a lot of the change that we would like to see. However, a lot of the building blocks are already in place and it may not be too long before we are able to see how this technology will work in our area.
It is really neat what blockchain technology is able to do in our world. In the past, we were just happy to get the reliable energy to come into our homes when we needed it, and now we may be able to buy and sell energy based on the needs that we have, thanks to this technology. The blockchain may have been originally designed in order to help keep track of all the transactions that occur on the Bitcoin network as well as with some of the other cryptocurrencies that are out there, but there are so many other applications of this kind of technology. A decentralized energy grid is just one place where you will be able to see blockchain technology grow and change the world.
