We’re excited to let you know that our CEO & Founder Peter Davies was invited to write a guest post on CryptoSlate about the new energy landscape that blockchain is allowing us to create in conjunction with our AI-based IoT device and token.

The paradigm shift in the new energy landscape is clearly not just about the shift from non-renewable to renewable energy, but one shifting from central energy providers to a distributed network of prosumers that’s enabled by the VLUX token.

Make sure you check out the full post on CryptoSlate here or read it below!

The New Energy Landscape, Made This Time for the Consumer

The world is rapidly turning to renewable energy and it’s going to see communities empowered. In the UK, renewables produce more than 20 percent of the UK’s electricity, and EU targets mean that this is likely to increase to 30 percent by 2020.

Gone are the days where the conventional energy landscape merely consisted of few large power plants. The new energy landscape will be centred around people.

Communities, neighbourhoods, cities, and states will instead benefit from the rise of ‘prosumers’ who will produce green energy (like solar power) for themselves and sell excess power directly to their neighbours at an affordable cost.

Currently, around 1.1 billion people live without access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.

There is both a moral demand and an economic sense of urgency to ensure there is universal access to electricity, and the unlocking of renewable energy sources provides a solution that is both cost-effective and climate-neutral.

Not only are we going to see the rise of the prosumer, we’re going to see local energy microgrids which are able to operate autonomously from the national grid when required become a thing of their own, while the advancement of machine learning technology like ours along with blockchain emerge to benefit global energy inclusion.

The rise of the prosumer

Renewable energy technologies like solar panels have changed the energy model from one that was a one-way street to one that enables consumers to generate and use their own energy to power their homes.

But battery storage has been a game-changer in taking this one step further. Battery storage allows people to store the renewable energy that they generate so that they can use it as and when they need it, as opposed to being reliant on the sunshine to power their solar panels in real-time for example.

And consumers with solar panels often produce far more energy than they need. By adding the battery storage element, they can sell this excess energy directly to their neighbours via the Verv energy trading platform on the blockchain— a much better option than having it go to waste or sold back to the national grid at a very minimal cost.

These energy consumers become active prosumers who can produce, store and sell their own energy within their community, thus improving access to affordable green energy.

And the power of the prosumer becomes really impactful when you scale this up into a full peer-to-peer energy trading network whereby energy from multiple local sources is traded daily. A function that will be enabled by our platform and VLUX token.

It can be said that our peer-to-peer energy trading platform, literally speaking, puts power back into the hands of the consumer, all the while improving their access to affordable and green energy.

Microgrids will be key

Microgrids powered by new technologies will be fundamental to the new energy economy as old centralized energy grids struggle to keep up with energy demands.

Every year, millions of small renewable energy generating units are being added to the energy system, such as wind turbines and solar systems.

As decarbonization, decentralization, and digitization transform the energy sector, smart microgrids are going to be needed to operate independently of larger grids, if necessary, to offset any disturbances.

These smart microgrids will connect individual energy producers and consumers to form peer-to-peer energy trading networks, leading to more social energy inclusion in communities.

Our microgrid initiative is currently underway at a London social housing community (Banister House Solar) in Hackney which features solar panels on 13 of the blocks of flats. Currently, the solar panels power the communal areas but the residents are unable to use the energy to power their homes due to the current structure of the UK electricity market.

Using battery storage and Verv’s IoT technology, the residents will be able to actually benefit directly from this renewable energy as energy can be allocated and sent to different flats based on their consumption needs

The initiative to install solar panels in London social housing was lead by Repowering London, a not-for-profit organization that specializes in facilitating the co-production of community-owned renewable energy projects.

By teaming this initiative with Verv technology, the goal is to empower residents to be energy self-sufficient as a community and eventually have the ability to operate independently of central energy grids when necessary.

In April we executed the UK’s first physical p2p trade of energy on the blockchain at our energy trading community which was a real milestone and great sign of where our VLUX token is headed and how it can be used for the good!

Microgrids will essentially offer a more flexible energy grid system where the trading of cheaper, greener energy is facilitated.

To facilitate the digitization and distributed nature of energy trading, the internet of things, machine learning, and blockchain technology are going to assist in creating an energy system that is competitive and drives efficiency.

IoT meets blockchain and AI for energy

New technology has developed new networks of producers and consumers and completely new business models for buying and selling energy.

With the use of the Verv hub that can sample energy data coming into a home at up to 5 million times faster than smart meters, energy consumption can now be tracked down to the very appliance.

The use of Verv’s machine learning and AI functionality can add another layer of intelligence to that information as well. Using detailed household consumption profiles and predictions around the supply and demand of energy, the hub can be used to establish optimal times and prices to buy and sell surplus energy to other energy users within a peer-to-peer network.

That peer-to-peer energy trading can then take place via a secure and transparent ledger on the blockchain.

This digitization of energy will mean that consumers will benefit from cheaper electricity costs, as well as the use of clean energy. Prosumers will benefit from being able to sell their excess energy to their neighbours, thus also incentivizing the uptake of renewables thanks to increased ROI.

The paradigm shift in the new energy landscape is clearly not just about the shift from non-renewable to renewable energy, but one shifting from central energy providers to a distributed network of prosumers.

People and communities will now be at the heart of the global energy landscape.