South Korean Science Ministry began testing an energy blockchain system for incentivising local renewable energy installations. South-Korean authorities have pledged to increase renewable energy’s share of the electricity generation mix to 20% by 2030 — an ambitious target given that renewable sources generated just 4% of the country’s electricity in the first three months of 2017. In other words, there is at least 20 times more renewable energy available than South Korea currently uses from all sources.

The vast majority of this is solar, clocking in at a potential yield of more than 10 million GWh/year. In December 2017, South Korean Science Ministry and KEPCO announced it will begin trials of a blockchain-based service that allows consumers to sell electricity to their neighbours.

The service will be tested in two apartments in Seoul and nine buildings within KEPCO’s facilities. Restart Energy Democracy (RED) platform connects local renewable energy producers/prosumers to consumers directly using blockchain and smart contracts, allowing them to reduce transaction costs and save consumers money.

Sources: koreaexpose.com, export.gov, zdnet.com, restartenergy.io

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