India: TERI Develops DLT-Powered Solar Energy Trading Prototype

India’s Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has developed a blockchain-powered platform that allows users to trade solar energy P2P with entities living in the same neighborhood. This, according to a report by Saur Energy, January 2, 2020.

Blockchain-Enabled Energy Trading Solution

In a move that seeks to leverage emerging technology to tackle the more serious economic and resource-related issues, New Delhi-based non-profit TERI has reportedly built a distributed ledger technology-enabled (DLT) prototype which will allow users to buy and sell solar energy among consumers in the same area.

Per sources close to the matter, the newly developed prototype allows users to sell the surplus power generated by a user’s rooftop solar power plant to their neighbors with just a tap of fingers. Moreover, the platform also gives its users the option to sell the energy back to the local power distribution company.

Notably, TERI has developed the prototype in partnership with Sofocle Technologies Limited, a Noida-based DLT and Internet of Things (IoT) startup. Through this prototype, the stakeholders hope to steadily develop local electricity markets in Indian towns and cities which will, in turn, give rise to the adoption of renewable energy alternatives.

The rise of a consumer-centric retail market for energy will also help India’s ambitious solar energy plans which include installation of rooftop-based solar panels to generate 40,000 MW of electricity by 2022.

Alekhya Datta, Fellow & Area Convenor, TERI, commented on the development, saying:

“The successful deployment of this prototype would help in scaling up the adoption of rooftop solar in the domestic consumer category.”

Similarly, Sweta Malik, who was a part of the TERI team that worked on the development of the prototype, said:

“Subscribers to such local energy markets-based services can trade clean solar energy in the form of energy tokens, just like cryptocurrency.”

Other Developments In the Energy Space

Earlier last year, BTCManager reported how Spanish energy firm Iberdrola, in partnership with Kutxabank and the Energy Web Foundation had developed a DLT platform to make renewable energy generation a more transparent and cost-effective affair.

In the same vein, two years ago, the Ugandan government had made its intentions clear to develop a blockchain-based renewable energy economy.