Australian Gov’t Awards AU$8.25M To Power Ledger Blockchain Energy Project

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Australian energy startup Power Ledger has received AU$8.25 million grant from the Australian government to create the country’s first green city in Fremantle.

Power Ledger is a startup that aims to use blockchain technology to create a peer-to-peer renewable energy network, trading units of self-generated solar power to energy retailers, who in turn broker it out to utilities. Power Ledger raised AU$34,146,854 through its initial coin offering (ICO), which closed on October 6. The final amount raised was made up of roughly $17 million in US dollars, AU$6 million in bitcoin, AU$10.7 million in ethereum and AU$400,000 in litecoin. Of the 1 billion POWR tokens that were generated before the token generation event, 350 million were made available for sale.

Power Ledger said the Australian government will provide AU$2.57 million in funding for a cutting edge project in the city of Fremantle and AU$5.68 million will be funded through project partners including Curtin University, Murdoch University, Curtin Institute of Computation, LandCorp, CSIRO/Data61, CISCO and Power Ledger. The project is part of the government’s inaugural Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

Supported by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Western Power, and the CRC for Low Carbon Living, the project will examine how cities can use blockchain and data analytics to integrate distributed energy and water systems. The startup stated that it will provide the transactional layer for the renewable assets, in addition to the ownership model for the community-owned battery.

“The trial will involve highly resilient, low-carbon and low-cost systems installed and connected using blockchain technology,” said Power Ledger. “A large solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, rooftop solar PV panels, a precinct sized battery, an electric vehicle charge station and precinct water treatment and capture systems will be orchestrated using blockchain technology and data analytics, and demonstrate the interconnected infrastructure of future smart cities.”

The project will provide the community with financial and service sustainability while still engaging the private sector. The project is expected to begin within the next two months and will continue over a two-year period.

Curtin Institute Professor Greg Morrison said the plan is to develop a smart metering, battery storage and blockchain trading system to allow energy and water efficiencies between critical dispersed infrastructures that would otherwise have required physical co-location.

Landcorp COO Dean Mudford said they are excited to be part of a shared commitment to explore alternative water and energy systems which are innovative, resource efficient and connected to smart technology.

“The potential for this level of innovation to be embedded within the next stage of our Knutsford development supports our broader corporate objective to lead by doing,” said Mudford. “Funding which allows research to explore alternative water and energy systems has the potential to significantly reduce infrastructure development costs for decades to come.”