Power Ledger - Peer-to-peer energy trading
[Please don’t take this as financial advice, I am not a financial advisor, bla bla bla... I just want to share my thoughts.].
Today: if you have solar panels and you produce more electricity than what you actually use, you can sell your excess power to the grid. The problem now is that solar panel owners get a small return for feeding excess power from their roof back into the grid, which power companies then on-sell at a much higher price.
Tomorrow: With peer-to -peer energy trading we will be able to cut out the middle man and directly on-selling to our neighbour.
To better analyse Power Ledger blockchain, we will use the 5Ws method.
- Who is involved? - Team
- What is the purpose of the project?
- Where is the project base?
- When did the project start?
- Why is a good/bad project? (my personal opinion).
#1 Who:
- 5 co-founders, all with international experience in different fields (finance, electricity industry, software
development, risk advisory..).
Link to read they short biography >>> https://powerledger.io/#team. - Western Power
- Curtin University
- Also, backed by Federal Government funding.
#2 What problem:
This project’s goal is to create an energy trading platform that will allow people and businesses to sell their surplus solar power to their neighbours without an intermediary.
#3 Where:
- Headquarters: It is an Australian project and the headquarters are based in Perth (WA).
- Actual project: The system is being built into a new residential complex in White Gum Valley, near Fremantle. The residents of the 80 dwellings, including units and townhouses, will be part of a microgrid that will make use of energy captured through their solar panels and topped up by the main electricity network. The system will allow peer to peer sharing of electricity between residents and is expected to provide about 70 per cent of the energy needs of the complex.
#4 When:
July 2017 and pre-start raised about $34,000,000 (AUD)
#5 Why could be a good project:
They are solving a real problem: Electricity cost.
I’ve got a lot of faith in this project, especially because I strongly believe that in the future energy will be decentralized. It is actually a brilliant use of the blockchain technology.
It’s a good company, because they are actually doing stuff. The team has been operating in the industry for quite a while, giving them the ability to achieve real value over time.
The price now is around $1.5 (USD) could easily reach $10 by end of 2018.
#6 Proof of work or proof of stake:
at this stage they are based on the Ethereum blockchain, and as per their white paper they are planning to transition entirely to a public proof-of-stake blockchain in due course.
If you think any of the information provided are incorrect, please leave a comment below.