Aussie Blockchain Solar Startup Begins Trials in Bangkok

Power Ledger, a solar startup from Australia, has started a trial in Bangkok for its P2P (peer-to-peer) energy marketplace that’s powered by a blockchain. This will allow locals to buy and sell solar power. The trial, which is the first of its kind in the Asian region, will be seeing people who live in the T77 precinct of Bangkok take part in this energy trial. The users will be able to sell whatever excess electricity they manage to generate using solar power. The buying and selling will happen over a blockchain-based marketplace which can be easily accessed by a centrally located precinct of Bangkok (around 8 hectares in size) on the area’s electricity grid.

The area chosen for this trial is clearly an affluent one and the trial will see an international school and a shopping mall take part alongside several serviced apartments as well as a dental hospital. According to the announcement that was made by Power Ledger, upto 635 KW of solar electricity will be bought and sold across the four participants. The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) of Bangkok, interestingly, will be allowing Power Ledger to access the city’s electricity grid so that users can physically transact in energy even as they remain plugged to the blockchain platform of the firm to make sure they get metering information for billing users.

David Martin, the managing director of the firm, said to the Thomson Reuters foundation right before the commercial launch of the initiative in September, that the company wants to create a scenario where the community will be able to become self-sufficient in its energy requirements and trade in renewable sources of power that generates lower prices for the users and a lesser extent of carbon footprint for the society at large.

The firm will be collaborating with BCPG, which is a renewable energy company, to create and install the panels to harness solar energy, linked to the blockchain platform of Power Ledger. After the trial is successfully concluded, Power Ledger plans to apply the solution to 31 specific projects and achieve a power generation capacity measuring around 2MW within a duration of three years.