It's Time We Stop Treating the Energy Space as a Monopoly

Today, we have new energy resources, innovative technology and a ton of scientific research showing that our planet is suffering from the overconsumption of energy. With all of this in mind, it is apparent that an industry shift is long overdue.

Renewable Energy and New Cleantech Innovations

New innovations in clean technology aren’t being used to their greatest ability because the outdated industry isn’t really allowing for it. A good example of a relatively new cleantech innovation is rooftop ‘photovoltaic’ power stations. Solar rooftop electricity is one of the lowest costing forms of electricity generation across the world. Unfortunately, the widespread uptake of this low cost and sustainable electricity is hampered due to the inability of new service providers to enter the market.

Other extraordinary and sustainable innovations such as low cost battery storage and electric vehicles have great potential, but the traditional industry model is no longer a feasible or cost effective approach to delivering these forms of electricity. These sustainable and renewable innovations in cleantech allow for an abundance of energy that is simply not being put to optimal use.

Environmental and Monetary Disadvantages

The cost of energy generation and distribution has risen dramatically. Beyond the monetary damage, air pollution due to fossil fuels has risen as well. Electricity generation and supply is one of the largest sources of air pollution worldwide. As far as monetary loss goes, in 2016, 81 percent of Australian consumers rated electricity as the number one greatest cost of living concern. Yet, as previously mentioned, we are still relying on a heavily regulated and outdated model. With the current model, the energy industry is dominated by a small number of incumbents that exercise oligopolistic control. In order to transform the energy industry, we need to lower the barriers to entry, thereby enabling new participants to compete in the value chain; and beyond that, a fully decentralized and affordable Renewable Energy needs to be put in place.

Blockchain Technology—The New Entrant

Blockchain technology will be the bedrock on which this energy transformation will be built. Blockchain will allow peer-to-peer transactions meaning that the incumbents will be taken out of the mix, and buying and selling to energy companies will no longer be the default. Instead, energy will be bought, sold or ‘traded’ between parties or communities based on the resources they have available at the time. This sort of trading system will permit businesses and communities to optimize the value of their excess generation.

Incorporating blockchain technology into the energy industry provides a solution that takes advantage of the trustless nature of the technology. Essentially the blockchain allows transparency and eliminates the need for a central authority to prove that the same unit of energy is not sold twice. This is the equivalent of the original bitcoin idea of using a distributed ledger or blockchain to solve the ‘double spend’ problem.

A new, decentralized model will disperse the power, reducing the need for grid infrastructure, allowing peer-to-peer energy trading, and putting the emphasis on sustainability and communities.

Our view is that the ideal electricity blockchain platform will be a completely open source platform that can be deployed without an incumbent grid partner and encourages development of a multitude of solutions tailored for each specific market need. This global accessibility will foster innovation and competition, and speed up the transition to a truly democratic grid model with fair pricing for the providers and consumers of decentralized energy resources.

It’s time that we let go of the legacy systems and pave the way for a new, clean energy industry that will provide the entire world with sustainable, decentralized, and low cost energy.