For a good chunk of my life, I’ve been interested in motion. Why do things move? How do we make them move? What is needed to sustain movement? It’s actually what drew me to the energy industry.
With the oil downturn, energy has been undergoing a revolutionary change to be more efficient. Gone are the days of clunky, gas-guzzling cars, replaced by sleek, clean electric options. Costly drilling platforms are not optimized operate leaner now, extracting that last bit of energy for unseen shale. Historically, when one sector undergoes mass change, so do others. In this case, the internet, particularly blockchain.
Blockchain technology has been touted as the new internet revolution. It has the ability up create smart contracts that are irreversible, ledgers that automated and accurate, and speed up transaction processing time. With all the advantages blockchain present, I wonder what are use cases for blockchain in the energy sector.
Over the next series of months, I’ll be dissecting use cases in blockchain and energy, market trend, current leaders, and most importantly, how does this affect the energy industry. I’ll start with simple use cases for blockchain and energy.
1) Peer to Peer Trading
Since blockchain technology functions as a contract and ledger system, the most obvious use case in energy is peer to peer trading. Think of selling excess solar energy back to the grid or to your neighbors. This allows a shift for prosumers and consumers to trade energy without the need for middlemen. Companies leading the charge in this are: Omega Grid, Power Ledger, and LO3 Energy
2) Renewable Investments
Part of blockchain’s appeal is that there are few barriers to entry on the investment side. Nearly any person can purchase coins for investment purposes. As a result, numerous renewable, clean technology projects have emerged for crowdfunding. Some are, ImpactPPA, MyBit, and Solar Coin.
3) Supply Chain & Logistics
With its ease in holding a record and tracking, blockchain applications become a massive asset to optimizing logistics for electricity supply as well as oil and gas supply. BHP Billiton already started implementing blockchain to manage their oil supply. (link here)