One of the first questions we are asked by potential customers is how the Zero Carbon Project is different to other energy blockchain projects. To an outsider, the electricity industry is technically complex, so the differences are not obvious. The simple answer is that our approach will make a more immediate material impact on carbon emissions, by delivering the lowest price of electricity, all around the world.

The recent energy blockchain projects that have had their share of success are based on conceptually sound ideas. These include leveraging blockchain innovations to support peer to peer electricity trading and to finance new renewables farms. However, in practice they will take time to scale because the underlying solar and battery technologies are still too expensive and will remain so for several more years. As a result, energy blockchain projects will be unable to make an early material impact on climate change as they will be more expensive than competing carbon based electricity; and therefore will be unable to scale fast enough.

The Zero Carbon Project has a solution to tackle climate change which will make an immediate impact because it is competitive on price outcomes and is globally scalable. It advances energy market democracy by working in partnership with members of the crypto-community as customers both during the token sale and also during the transition to zero carbon.

Our solution combines economic technologies that are being used for cost savings today, without the blockchain. These include online consumer switching sites, online reverse energy auctions and international carbon credits. We are enhancing these innovations by leveraging Ethereum smart contracts to create the Energis token which acts as a reward mechanism and the catalyst for change, for energy consumers in the crypto-community.

The Zero Carbon Project is also different in that we can only effectively tackle climate change by working in partnership with our customers who are energy consumers in the crypto-community. To be successful, we really do need to bring democracy to energy and blockchain.

Zero Carbon Project solution to climate change

The Zero Carbon Project approach to tackling climate change involves rolling out zero carbon markets or energy crypto-exchanges in the competitive electricity markets around the world. Energy consumers from the crypto-community access the online zero carbon market to choose from a list of offers from energy suppliers, all competing to win more business. The consumer then switches to his preferred cheapest offer if it costs less than their current carbon based electricity. However, the cost saving and opportunity to contribute isn’t usually enough for consumers to prioritise switching.

We are solving this prioritisation problem by working with the crypto-community. To provide the extra incentive required for energy consumers to prioritise the switch, customers are rewarded with valuable Energis tokens.

Energis tokens derive their value as the means of payment for the transaction fees for participation in the energy crypto exchange, just like gas transaction fees in the Ethereum blockchain. These Energis transaction fees will then be recycled as rewards for more energy consumers to make the switch to zero carbon electricity.

Participating energy suppliers will need to source international carbon credits to offset any carbon emissions, in order to compete effectively against carbon based electricity. International carbon credits are cheap, but they are effective at reducing carbon emissions.

By working together with the crypto community, we can make an immediate material impact on global carbon emissions.

Power Ledger business model comparison

Power Ledger is providing a market for peer to peer trading which involves households purchasing electricity from neighbours who have produced excess electricity from solar panels. This is very different to zero carbon markets which sources zero carbon electricity centrally.

Power Ledger customers are ‘application hosts’ who can use Power Ledger’s blockchain software to provide their own peer to peer services to their own customers. Zero carbon project is different as our customers are electricity consumers. One of our customers could indirectly be a Power Ledger customer. For example, an energy supplier could win the business of one of our customers across our platform, but also use the Power Ledger platform to source some of the electricity from our customer’s neighbour.

Power Ledger’s peer to peer markets could take several years to provide cheaper prices than electricity sourced centrally across our zero carbon markets. The time will come when prices are cheaper from distributed energy sourced from solar, stored in batteries and managed by smart meters. But it may require a catalyst such as connecting batteries from the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

WePower business model comparison

WePower is targeting new renewables farms seeking finance to build solar and wind farms, initially in the south of Europe and Australia. Their approach is to tokenise the future electricity output from each new renewable farm and auction these tokens to the crypto-community. WePower plans to establish their own energy supply businesses to deliver this electricity to consumers.

Zero Carbon Project is different in that it provides a competitive market for competing energy suppliers offering different innovative ways to provide cheaper zero carbon electricity. WePower will be welcome to offer their zero carbon electricity across our zero carbon markets, competing against other energy suppliers.

New renewables farms could take several more years to compete against other zero carbon sources. The most attractive sites for solar farms, where the sun shines close to transmission infrastructure, have already been bought and developed, supported by very attractive subsidies, which are no longer available. The cheapest prices across the zero carbon market, for the time being, are those sourced from existing subsidised solar farms and those using international carbon credit offsets.

Solving climate change with lower electricity prices

The Zero Carbon Project is established to make an early material impact on the planet’s climate change problem. We will do this by under-cutting carbon based electricity prices by leveraging intensive competition, like-for-like transparency, international carbon credits and Energis rewards.

This is a pragmatic way forward for the world, until the costs of solar, batteries and electric vehicles become affordable for mass adoption.

We believe our approach to tackling climate change is more effective and innovative because we can make an immediate impact by scaling quickly to deliver lower prices than our blockchain competitors.