A new project, with ties to IOTA and the IOTA Foundation have received funding which is set to see blockchain technology used in a range of experiments into energy solutions across seven European cities. The funding, of which most will come from the European Union is expected to see around €30 Million, granted to the +CityxChange Consortium, a group made of around 25 companies, which includes the IOTA Foundation, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, ABB Norway, AVIS Budget Group, Space Engagers, GKinetic Energy LTD and more.

According to Bitcoinist.com, the cities and countries in question include;

Trondheim (Norway), Limerick (Republic of Ireland), Alba Iulia (Romania), Písek (Czech Republic), Sestao (Spain), Smolyan (Bulgaria) and Võru (Estonia). +CityxChange truly is a Europe wide project.

Within this, the aforementioned cities will be exploring blockchain technologies in order to try and improve the quality of life of people in the area and, most importantly to use blockchain technology to generate more energy than is required by the city. According to Bitcoinist.com, Wilfried Pimenta, the Head of Business Development at the IOTA Foundation has said:

“Smart cities is one of the fastest growing cross-sectorial arenas of innovation for IOTA. Building on our work and partnerships across mobility, energy or data marketplace, these smart city ecosystems bring it all together.”

Moreover, IOTA co-founder, David Sønstebø has said:

“Being able to explore and demonstrate the utility of IOTA within the smart city context in numerous cities across Europe will be incredibly valuable going forward.”

See more for yourself,

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Within this project, IOTA are spearheading a new use for blockchain technology and are seriously exploring how the technology can be used to improve energy consumption, an area of concern for many experts across the globe. By producing more clean energy that we need, demand cannot out weight supply and therefore, cities like those used in this experiment will no longer be at risk of depleting resources. If this goes well, we can only expect to see IOTA’s technologies branch out into more cities across Europe and will also expect to see similar trials take off in other parts of the world, including the United States, Japan and Australia.

Using the blockchain to help save the planet, might very well be the most important use for this technology yet.