These are a Community Fund Grant programme to support innovative projects aligned with the organisation’s mission and a crowdloan scheme to participate in the parachain slot auction.

The Community Fund Grant programme, which has been initiated by the Energy Web Chain Validators, is aimed to support the development of tools and infrastructure to accelerate the real-world adoption of the EW Chain and related open-source software in support of the global energy transition.

Based on specific requirements applicants must meet, it features a tiered grant system intended to support different types of projects, from small-scale ideas such as building simple components to improve Energy Web’s tech stack to larger ones such as building new solutions or conducting pilots involving energy assets.

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The amounts available range up to €25,000 ($26,850) for smaller projects of not more than four months duration up to >€100,000 ($107,380) for projects up to 1 year in length.

With Energy Web entering the Polkadot environment and developing its next-generation Energy Web X blockchain, the opportunities for innovation are even greater, the organisation says.

“Impact-driven innovation and open-source technologies are deeply rooted in Energy Web’s mission and values. Applicants will be required to tackle tangible challenges and must be willing to share project results in a transparent way.”

Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis and are then subject to review and assessment.

Polkadot crowdloan

The objective of the crowdloan initiative is to support Energy Web to gain a parachain slot for Energy Web X on the Polkadot Relay Chain and thereby enable it to leverage the security and scalability benefits inherent in that infrastructure.

However, due to the limited availability of the parachain slots, a competitive process is in place to allocate them.

To determine which projects get to connect their parachains to the Polkadot Relay Chain, lease periods – known as ‘time slots’ – are auctioned off, with each lease period lasting for 12 weeks.

Projects can bid for up to eight slots at once in a crowdloan, for a total of 96 weeks of lease time.

The crowdloan scheme works with contributors lending their DOT (Polkadot) tokens for the Energy Web X launch via the Polkadot crowdloan mechanism. In the event of not winning an auction, the contributed DOT tokens are immediately returned. Otherwise, if an auction is won, the tokens will be returned at the ending of the lease, 96 weeks after it begins.

To incentivise participation, Energy Web has instituted a rewards programme offering 1$EWT (Energy Web token) for every 1$DOT placed.

Funds raised via the crowdloan are being used in auctions beginning on September 5, 2023 and concluding between September 19 and September 24, 2023.

If awarded a parachain slot, the launch would be targeted for October 23, 2023.

The Powerledger Chain is the third generation blockchain from the company, which was one of the pioneers of the technology in the energy sector, and is designed to facilitate the development of scalable decentralised apps that are able to handle thousands of transactions per second at low cost.

Example challenges highlighted include intermittency from solar and wind and grid congestion.

“Today is the most significant day in our blockchain journey as we make our game-changer Powerledger Chain public as it offers scalability, security, and energy efficiency,” said Powerledger technical director and co-founder, John Bulich.

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“It’s the ideal platform for developing green and affordable energy solutions that pave the way to a brighter future.”

The Powerledger Chain is a customised permissioned Solana blockchain utilising proof-of-history and proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms to deliver the required throughput with lower energy requirements compared with proof-of-work blockchains.

Powerledger has developed a range of solutions in the areas of energy trading and traceability, flexibility trading and environmental commodities training.

These are at various stages of implementation in a dozen countries including Australia, India, the US and within Europe and Asia.

Another issue Powerledger highlights is that of centralisation, with the growing distributed energy system challenging the traditional centralised approach.

With decentralisation at its core, the public blockchain’s role in energy does not necessarily dismiss centralisation, but offers the importance of a balanced approach with the power of highly scalable blockchain-based solutions, the company states.

“The responsibility for grid management can be negotiated among stakeholders using a decentralised paradigm that uses smart contracts on our new public blockchain.”

Superfast charging LFP batteries for EVs

A 10 minute charge providing a driving range of 400km and a full charge delivering 700km?

That would satisfy most EV drivers and eliminate range anxiety – and it is claimed to be coming with Chinese battery manufacturing company CATL’s new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery named ‘Shenxing’.

CATL reports leveraging the super-electronic network cathode technology and fully nano-crystallized LFP cathode material to create a super-electronic network, which facilitates the extraction of lithium ions and the rapid response to charging signals.

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Its latest second-generation fast ion ring technology is used to modify the properties of graphite surface, which increases intercalation channels and shortens the intercalation distance for lithium ions, creating an expressway for current conduction.

A new superconducting electrolyte formula, which effectively reduces the viscosity of the electrolyte, resulting in improved conductivity, also has been developed.

Other improvements include reduced resistance of lithium-ion movement, while cell temperature control technology ensures that cells heat up to the optimal operating temperature range rapidly, allowing a 0-80% charge in just 30 minutes in temperature as low as -10°C.

CATL anticipates that mass production of Shenxing will be achieved before year-end and the first vehicles with the battery will be available on the market in the first quarter of next year.

Improving Bitcoin mining efficiency

With Bitcoin mining notoriously energy intensive and miners rushing to adopt greener and more sustainable operations, another alternative, which is being pursued by the London-based Quantum Blockchain Technologies, is to improve the efficiency of the mining itself and thus in turn its energy consumption.

The company’s ‘Method A’, unlike the standard approach of running as many hashes as possible within the available period, decides at the beginning of each block hashing whether to hash using a traditional search or a spaced confined search, with testing demonstrating an approximately 10% in mining speed.

But its ‘Method B’, for which a patent application was recently filed, is even more efficient, based on partial pre-computation on upcoming blocks prior to the current one being closed and guiding the search by deciding where the most promising winning hashes are likely to be found.

With this approach, the number of logic gates on the chip is reduced and the processing of a large number of hashes is avoided to obtain the results in less time.

In this case, there should be a 2.6x improvement in the ability to find a winning hash, compared to standard search, while saving up to 4.3% of energy.

However, its implementation requires a new architecture and the design of a new mining chip.

Setting sail with ‘Windwings’

Mitsubishi Corporation’s ‘Pyxis Ocean’, a 229m long bulk carrier vessel on charter to the global food giant Cargill, has become the first to be fitted with a novel wind propulsion system that could be key for the decarbonisation of shipping.

The two ‘Windwings’, which were designed by BAR Technologies in the EU Horizon 2020 supported initiative, are large wing sails measuring up to 37,5m in height with a 10m wide central component and front and rear 5m wide flaps that can be fitted to the deck of cargo ships, both new and as a retrofit, to harness the power of the wind.

The windwings can rotate and also pivot, right down to deck level, to allow for the differing wind angles and speeds.

With this wind assist, the windwings are expected to deliver average fuel savings of up to 30%.

The ‘Pyxis Ocean’ is currently on its maiden voyage with the windwings from Shanghai, where they were fitted, to Paranagua in Brazil with their performance being closely monitored to further improve their design and operation.

Hundreds of wings are planned to be built over the next few years and BAR Technologies is also researching new builds with improved hydrodynamic hull forms.

In a new white paper prepared in partnership with the Indian Energy Exchange and Australian blockchain pioneer Powerledger, the ISGF states that neither net or gross metering tariffs nor subsidies have led to the expected uptake of solar capacity, mainly due to low feed-in tariffs and unattractive yearly returns from the current market model.

In comparison, peer-to-peer (P2P) trading offers a financially attractive model for both prosumers as well as consumers in the domestic and C&I segment.

In addition, the distribution companies benefit when net metering customers switch to P2P, while the government subsidies, which are presently disbursed to install rooftop solar, can be avoided.

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The white paper states that the significance of P2P energy trading in promoting rooftop solar has been recognised by the regulator of Uttar Pradesh, which has approved a new set of regulations to facilitate the seamless integration of rooftop solar with the grid.

This follows the implementation in 2020 of a blockchain-based P2P energy trading pilot in Uttar Pradesh by the ISGF and Powerledger, which has received overwhelming interest from multiple distribution companies across India keen to replicate similar projects in their respective regions.

Subsequently, other initiatives have been launched in Delhi and West Bengal among other states.

The white paper states that P2P and local energy markets create both the right market and price signals to boost the deployment of renewable energy assets, such as rooftop solar, to meet India’s national renewables targets of 2030 and beyond.

Some benefits highlighted that can be derived from P2P trading that have emerged from pilots in India include incentivising the deployment of rooftop solar, increasing the viability for net metering prosumers to switch to P2P and trade with C&I consumers and potentially offering higher revenue than gross metering to current subscribers.

Others are reducing the losses incurred by discoms through net metering, helping them to meet their renewable purchase obligation targets, reducing energy transfer on transmission corridors – and thereby deferring capex for the network – helping to remove subsidies for rooftop solar installations and addressing energy inequity by enabling consumers without rooftop solar to purchase green energy and be part of the renewable economy.

Moreover, the suitability of blockchain technology for both low-trust environments and high-information cost environments makes it ideal for the energy sector. With a secure and transparent record-keeping system supported by smart contracts, complex transactions can be automated, ensuring efficient and reliable energy transactions.

While most blockchain use cases are in finance, supply chain management, and identity management, it holds great promise for asset registries and energy trading platforms.

The white paper points to the issues such as intermittency, inertia deficits and grid congestion that have arisen with the introduction of renewables to the grid and the classical response being to build bigger and more infrastructure.

But with their costs and scalability issues, blockchain as a distributed architecture is seen by many as the sensible alternative – and according to the white paper, is the only option that will prove to be better and more efficient.

“The rapidly emerging and more complex energy landscape demands a shift from traditional centralised databases to blockchain and the new and decentralised markets they unlock. Realising this is fundamental to saving lots on battery capacity by using the existing resources better.”

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The white paper continues that there is also a stronger claim to be made about the appropriateness of next-generation blockchain to mitigate the problems of the grid with new functionalities anticipated such as peer exchanges in real time and forward booking of electricity slots with time ahead cost dependencies.

With forward booking, auctioning and re-booking slots with penalty clauses and bonus offers, a real-time high-volume Gen 3 blockchain will be needed to manage this market.

Gen 3 blockchains

Gen 3 blockchains are the latest evolution providing significant advances in terms of scalability, interoperability and transaction throughput and cost.

Whereas Gen 1 blockchain, or Bitcoin, with its proof-of-work consensus, is energy intensive and Gen 2 blockchains introduced smart contracting, Gen 3 blockchains use the more energy efficient proof-of-stake or proof-of-history consensus mechanisms.

Examples are Polkadot, on to which Energy Web is moving for its next-gen Energy Web X, and Solana, which Powerledger – one of the white paper’s contributors – has adapted for its blockchain, while others include Cardano, Avalanche and Algorand.

The white paper points out that the high throughput and low latency of Gen 3 blockchains capable of processing thousands of transactions per second make them suitable for handling the high volume of data generated in energy systems in applications requiring near real-time settlement, such as energy trading and grid management.

Other features detailed of Gen 3 blockchains include transparency and security and trustless and decentralised operation.

Gen 3 blockchain use cases

Blockchain technology is best suited for environments where trust is especially important, where there is a need for a secure and transparent record-keeping system, supported by the automation of complex transactions through smart contracts, the white paper states.

Some examples cited among those that have been introduced include renewable energy tracking and energy attribute certificates and transactive approaches including peer-to-peer trading and demand response, while emerging examples are real-time electricity billing with smart metering and electric vehicle-to-grid transactions.

In conclusion, the white paper says that while centralised database systems are working well right now by and large, as countries reach their renewables goals or net zero goals, the grid will need to engage traditional consumers to help balance supply and demand. And in order for it to work well a very agile energy market is needed.

“While sceptics argue that existing technologies can fulfil the same functions, blockchain represents the culmination of advancements in mathematics that have revolutionised everyday activities like communication and online shopping.”

The projects share a common objective to develop and deploy new business models and concepts which add value by leveraging integrated energy services.

Based on the principle that collaboration and innovation are key, they intend to pool resources and expertise to accelerate the energy transition, according to a statement from the EU’s Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, which delivers the LIFE funding programme to support the delivery of the region’s sustainable energy policies.

“#SmartEnergyCluster projects focus on merging different energy services and incorporating non-energy benefits whilst overcoming market fragmentation and fostering cooperation. This inclusive approach bridges gaps and creates a common ground for business development across different segments.”

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The 19 projects are wide-ranging from InEExS, which is using blockchain technology to tokenise energy saving data, to EU-MORE, which is undertaking early replacement of old electric motors.

Others include Audit-to-measure, which is aimed to help companies translate energy audits into actionable measures, and BungEES, which is bundling and valorising energy efficiency services and flexibility on the demand side.

The others are BD4NRG, BIGG, Bright, Efficiency-as-a-Service, Energate, Flex, Fresco, i-nergy, Interconnect, Matrycs, Neon, Nudge, Probono, SmartSpin and V2market.

The statement continues that the #SmartEnergyCluster highlights the power of collaboration to drive and is a great opportunity to showcase ground-breaking LIFE projects with significant potential for improved energy efficiency, increased renewable energy use and enhanced system flexibility.

For more news about projects, visit the EU Projects Zone

“The cluster aims to inspire even greater collaboration, innovation and more widespread adoption of smart energy solutions by everyone involved in the sector and to pave the way for a smarter, greener, and more efficient energy system for all.”

Energy Web in Polkadot link up

Energy Web, which has led the development of the blockchain in the energy sector, is looking to Polkadot for its next generation technology.

Polkadot is a platform that unites specialised blockchains or ‘parachains’, such as Energy Web’s, opening up the possibility for interoperability across these and providing the basis for an interoperable decentralised web.

While Energy Web has yet to release full details of its plans – and we’ll report in due course – the organisation has indicated the move will allow it to create the framework for its new Energy Web X as the next generation energy sector blockchain technology.

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A key feature is the implementation of so-called ‘worker nodes’ or decentralised groups of computers that perform work off-chain that can be deployed independently but coordinated in cohesive networks.

Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web, anticipates that the shift to Energy Web X will enable partner companies, such as Shell, Vodafone and Volkswagen, to accelerate their decarbonisation strategies.

“To achieve the [clean energy] goal, we decided to search for a blockchain platform that offers real enterprise-grade security and seamless upgradeability to ensure a safe and future-proof environment. Polkadot excels on both of these fronts with its shared security model and best-in-class core technology.”

Energy Web is focused currently on two key areas, one to help electric utilities digitise and integrate distributed energy resources to the grid and the second to bring transparency and verifiability to emerging green product supply chains, including 24/7 matched renewable electricity.

By the end of Q1, a total of 42 parachains had joined Polkadot, representing sectors such as decentralised finance, privacy, social media, sustainability, NFTs, gaming and the metaverse.

By leveraging each other’s strengths to unlock new use cases, parachains help projects expand at scale while enjoying the shared security advantages provided by Polkadot.

ChatGPT comes to utility water management

In what is believed to be a first US headquartered water platform provider Klir has launched generative AI capabilities through the latest iteration of its Klir Comply platform.

Using Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI service to provide access to powerful language models, including ChatGPT-4, water professionals are able to receive insights into their utility’s data through an AI-powered chatbot while benefiting from the scalability, reliability, performance and security of Azure, Klir says.

By blending the conversational benefits of ChatGPT with each utility’s water quality management and compliance data – e.g. “Is our water compliant today?” or “Draft me a summary of last week’s water quality” – the AI function simplifies tedious but critical tasks while ensuring internal data stays secure and private at all times, the company asserts.

In what is stated as a nod of Klir’s Irish roots, the chatbot is represented by ‘Boots’, an Irish Water Spaniel “trained to sniff out key data”.

And ‘Boots’ allows users to query millions of data points within the utility’s private internal data with features including integrating administrative tasks with sampling results data, providing predictive water quality analysis, generating quantitative insights into sampling results and identifying correlations between data.

“Klir’s AI function sits as a layer on top of what is already the most comprehensive software for water quality and compliance management on the market,” declares David Lynch, CEO of Klir.

“To be able to ask complex compliance water management questions and immediately receive accurate answers is seismic and will help organisations around the world to slow the global water crisis.”

Along with introducing the ChatGPT function, Klir also has unveiled a new ‘maturity model’ that assesses and prioritises the key operational risks water utilities face.

Metaverse could reduce greenhouse gas emissions

New research from scientists at Cornell University suggest that the growing metaverse sector could reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 10Gt CO2e by 2050 and lower the global surface temperature by up to 0.02^oC before the end of the century.

The findings emerged from AI-based modelling of data from several key sectors, technology, energy, environment and business, to anticipate the growth of metaverse usage and the impact of its most promising applications including remote work, virtual traveling, distance learning, gaming and non-fungible tokens.

The researchers projected metaverse expansion through 2050 along three different trajectories – slow, nominal and fast – and they looked to previous technologies, such as television, the internet and the iPhone, for insight into how quickly that adoption might occur.

They also factored in the amount of energy that increasing usage would consume.

The modelling suggested that within 30 years, the technology would be adopted by more than 90% of the population, which was more rapidly than expected, and with limiting business travel generating the largest environmental benefit.

“Think about the decarbonisation of our transportation sector,” says Fengqi You, professor in Energy Systems Engineering in Cornell Engineering and senior author of the research.

“Electric vehicles work, but you can’t drive a car to London or Tokyo. Do I really have to fly to Singapore for a conference tomorrow? That will be an interesting decision-making point for some stakeholders to consider as we move forward with these technologies with human–machine interface in a 3D virtual world.”

Currently, two of the biggest industry drivers of metaverse development are Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft, both of which contributed to the Cornell study. Meta has been focusing on individual experiences such as gaming, while Microsoft specialises in business solutions, including remote conferencing and distance learning.

Ultimately however, the metaverse can only do so much, You points out.

“There are so many sectors in this economy. You cannot count on the metaverse to do everything. But it could do a little bit if we leverage it in a reasonable way.”

Deutsche Telekom joins up with Energy Web

That the mobile telcos are becoming increasingly important players with not only communications but broader solutions in the energy sector has been highlighted once again with the joining up to the Energy Web Foundation by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary Deutsche Telekom MMS.

Energy Web, a developer of blockchain, aka web3, technologies for distributed energy resource applications, relies on its ecosystem of sector and IT players to validate the EW Chain.

Deutsche Telekom MMS is the IT service and consulting subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom with a range of services for the energy sector and growing interests in the IoT and web3.

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Dirk Röder, Head of Deutsche Telekom’s Blockchain Solutions Centre, says the collaboration shows that blockchain technology can be an important tool in the fight against climate change.

“Deutsche Telekom is not only securing the energy grid, but also accelerating progress towards climate targets while promoting renewable energies,” he asserts.

Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web, adds: “Established, trusted digital infrastructure providers like Deutsche Telekom are key players when it comes to helping some of the world’s largest energy companies digitise in order to manage increasingly renewable and complex energy systems.”

Energy Web is by no means the only web3 participation of Deutsche Telekom MMS and just days before the company announced itself as a validator of the Polygon public blockchain. Polygon’s is an Ethereum-based ecosystem offering a range of solutions for developers.

‘Green’ EV batteries from Innolith

Swiss-German battery technology developer Innolith has announced the commercialisation of a new battery technology for electric vehicles and other e-mobility applications that is designed to cut costs and increase vehicle range.

The I-state battery technology is based on a high voltage, high conductivity liquid inorganic electrolyte. This higher voltage than traditional lithium-ion cells enables higher utilisation of cathode capacity through the usage of nearly 100% of the available lithium versus 80% for the Li-ion.

This in turn enables a significant reduction of cathode metals used in the cell and thereby reduces both the costs and weight of the EV battery pack – the latter by about 8%.

The I-state technology is also stated to enable stable cycling of manganese-containing cathodes with reduced content of the expensive nickel and under development are Mn-rich chemistries.

Innolith intends to license the technology through partnerships with automotive, industrial and battery companies and MoUs have been signed with five customers so far for a production requirement of 100MWh per year.

These MOUs are for applications across the off-road, aviation and mining sectors, and include an agreement with Xerotech, a leader in battery pack technology for heavy-duty non-road mobile machinery.

Innolith also has announced working closely with three of the 10 largest car companies and recently signing an MOU with one of the leading EV manufacturers.

6G – all about energy efficiency

While 5G is still emerging in many countries, the industry is already looking forward to a post-2030 6G technology, with new levels of capacity and latency that will support the imaging and awareness technologies that underpin the metaverse.

The Next G Alliance, which was formed to advance North American developments in 6G, has identified two key areas for connectivity.

One is for needs in areas such as massive and energy efficient collection of Internet of Things data, artificial intelligence/machine learning, optimisation for new classes of device, increased interoperability across public and private networks, and seamless experiences linking terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to extend coverage.

The second is to enable new service offerings, with examples including sensing and centimetre accuracy positioning and tracking services, which could enable applications such as precise autonomous coordination between farm machinery and vehicles or the supervision of dementia patients living in their communities.

Energy applications are envisaged primarily within the environment of smart cities in areas such as energy supply but underlying all applications is the need for energy-efficient devices and sensors.

For example, the introduction of zero-energy IoT devices within the 6G timeframe will increase proliferation and device density and by orders of magnitude compared to the present. This in turn is likely to make cellular IoT an obvious choice for many developers, something not conceivable in previous generations of wireless communications systems, the Alliance has stated.

The new solution comprises a certification platform and registry which assesses miners via a ‘Clean Energy Score’ and a ‘Grid Impact Score’, which are calculated based on operational information including location and energy consumption data.

Together, the scores are designed to reflect miners’ procurement of renewable electricity, siting of operations in regions with low grid carbon intensity and their contributions to grid stability through demand flexibility.

Developed in partnership with miners, NGOs, grid operators and other energy and crypto market participants, the approach is devised to align with best practices for sustainability in other industries as well as to approaches to corporate ESG reporting in the financial and other sectors.

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Amy Westervelt, Senior Delivery Lead and head of the GP4BTC initiative at Energy Web, says that Green Proofs for Bitcoin seeks to provide a unifying definition of sustainable mining, as well as a shared framework for assessing and verifying miners’ sustainability practices.

“While other electricity-intensive industries have benefited from custom decarbonisation roadmaps, Bitcoin has largely been ignored, creating a negative feedback loop where climate-conscious miners are left to forge their own paths. Our goal is to create a virtuous cycle where clean mining is easier to define, pursue, and monetise – so that it eventually becomes the status quo.”

Bitcoin is frequently in the spotlight for its energy consumption and many miners are pursuing strategies to reduce their carbon footprints, including powering their operations with renewable energy or flared gas and providing flexibility to the grids.

However, a standardisation of practices and a drive for collective action across the crypto mining sector have been restricted.

The Bitcoin Mining Council for example, while an important player in monitoring energy use and driving transparency, utilises voluntary disclosure for its now semi-annual reporting.

The GP4BTC was launched with five miners, Argo Blockchain, Cowa, DMG Blockchain Solutions, Gryphon Digital Mining and Hive Blockchain Technologies.

For miners, the GP4BTC solution is considered to provide evidence of clean energy practices, with the miner retaining full ownership and control of their data, while for Bitcoin users and institutions, it enables a one-stop-shop for discovering and validating miners’ sustainability credentials.

With verifiable metrics that are consistent across companies and geographies, the solution should provide recognition and reputational benefit for companies mining sustainably, as well as improved access to institutional finance and other returns on their investments into sustainability practices.

The toolkit, the next to be made open source by Energy Web, is intended to enable utilities and aggregators to configure and deploy digital spines with a self-hosted integration gateway and cloud-based integration.

Currently integration is with Microsoft’s Azure marketplace but further cloud marketplaces are in prospect as are additional configurations to enable secure gateway devices and/or individual DERs, such as smart inverters, to directly integrate with the digital spines.

The Digital Spine toolkit is also designed to help electric utilities construct and launch new solutions focused on digital twinning of distribution networks, advanced distribution planning, demand forecasting and optimising DER dispatch.

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A digital spine is a network of connected nodes that are deployed by organisations across the energy sector that can enable data to be ingested, standardised and shared in near real time.

Each node ingests data about the energy system, standardises it and shares it via a standard interface that can be accessed by other nodes in the network to enable it to be acted upon.

Such data can include both operational and financial data and for example price signals, essential for the operation of multiple distributed energy assets by multiple parties.

Project EDGE

Project EDGE (Energy Demand and Data Exchange) was undertaken with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to demonstrate the potential for aggregations of consumer-owned distributed energy resources to deliver energy services to the wholesale power system and at local network levels.

The Digital Spine powering Project EDGE enables DERs, via aggregators, to sell services such as capacity and voltage support to distribution utilities while simultaneously participating in the wholesale energy market.

Bids and offers between DERs and utilities are constrained by the safe operating ranges or ‘operating envelopes’ of the DERs based on the 5 minute voltage, frequency and power limits they must follow to connect to and interact with the grid.

“If we want to decarbonise the grid, we have to grow a digital spine,” said Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web.

“Utilities today simply do not have the tools needed to fully harness grid flexibility from DERs. Digital spines give utilities that capability.”

Digital Spine toolkit

The Digital spine toolkit has five key components:
• A data and message exchange module to enable grid operators to configure and deploy a centralised transport layer in order for market participants to securely exchange messages and datasets.
• A client gateway that provides a standardised interface for market participants to interact with the data exchange module.
• An identity and access management solution built on self-managed, sovereign digital identities to give market participants the ability to mutually authenticate each other’s identity and authorise selective disclosure of data based on roles and responsibilities.
• A governance tool to enable market participants to encode and enforce rules, roles, and responsibilities that must be met in order for companies to integrate with the spine
• The ability to jointly process data using Energy Web’s open source Worker Node technology.

For Project EDGE, worker nodes are used to ingest and process data from AEMO, distribution utilities and DER aggregators prior to partitioning and communicating the operating envelopes to DER aggregators in order to maintain network integrity without disclosing sensitive data.

Energy Web is currently convening an ecosystem of digital solution providers to build commercial applications on top of digital spines.

The Battery Passport, the product of over 18 months of work and testing with 15 companies over the past year, is effectively a digital representation of a battery’s life enabling original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and battery producers to collect and exchange critical data on the lifecycle.

Such information includes the battery type, chemistry and performance details, as well as sustainability data.

The aim is to ensure safe and sustainable handling of the batteries throughout their lifecycle or a circular approach, with the blockchain providing a secure, decentralised way for the passports to be updated, stored and shared.

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The Battery Passport also enables tracking of all relevant ESG metrics and carbon emissions data as well as recycled content.

“The world moves towards a more sustainable future, and Minespider’s Open Battery Passport is providing the essential data and tools needed for a truly connected and responsible automotive industry,” asserts Nathan Williams, founder and CEO of Switzerland-headquartered company.

Minespider’s blockchain-based Battery Passport is designed to address the requirements of EU and other upcoming battery regulations and is being offered to users for free.

Work on it began in November 2021 and the fifteen companies, among them Ford Otosan and Renault, were onboarded in July 2022.

The beta phase currently underway during Q2 is open to up to 100 companies. The full launch will then take place in Q3, followed by open sourcing of the software in early 2024.

The Open Battery Passport includes an unlimited number of passports, accounts and API calls.

A company can quickly and easily create battery passports by integrating an open API, use battery passport templates and add individual battery data, including information as defined in Article 65 and Annex XIII in the EU Battery Regulation.

Various battery passports, as well as other resource passports, for supply chain tracking are underway and are set to be implemented.

The EV charge points will be supplied with certified 100% renewable energy, tracked in real time using Acciona Energia’s Greenchain blockchain platform.

The goal is for 475 of these charging points to be operational by the end of 2023, while the rest will be installed progressively until 2026.

Most of the charging points will be public and available for anyone visiting the IKEA centres, but around 30% of them will be reserved for the use of the company’s suppliers and fleet.

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They will include 60kW fast chargers with two 120kW outlets per unit and normal 22kW chargers to meet the needs of a wide range of users.

Each of the locations, which will include the headquarters in San Sebastián de Los Reyes in Madrid and the logistic centre in Valls, will also have a bidirectional charging point with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.

According to a statement with this agreement, IKEA continues to move forward on its commitment to making a positive impact on people and the planet and accelerates the deployment of a network of charging points across all its centres.

Acciona Energía, a Spanish renewable energy company, will install the charging points and be in charge of their operation, maintenance, and customer service as well as supply the renewable electricity.

Acciona’s Greenchain platform provides traceability of the energy from the point of generation to the point of consumption, as well as recording the moment it is produced.

The platform, which is based on the Energy Web chain, also has been adapted for green hydrogen tracking.

Energy Web X – next-gen energy sector blockchain tech

Energy sector blockchain consortium Energy Web is set to launch its new Energy Web X technology with alpha testing currently under way and beta versions slated for delivery in Q3 of this year.

Energy Web X, intended as a complement to the current Energy Web Chain, is designed to introduce new technical capabilities with the implementation of so-called ‘worker nodes’ that perform work off-chain.

The worker nodes are decentralised groups of computers that jointly execute business processes that involve or impact multiple companies – at least three or more – and establish consensus about the results.

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Example use cases where Energy Web has deployed worker nodes include powering solutions for 24/7 matched renewable and green EV charging, coordinating the dispatch of distributed energy resources and supporting decentralised registries for DERs and clean commodities such as sustainable aviation fuel.

Currently, the worker nodes are deployed and operated directly by Energy Web. But to realise their full potential a way is needed to deploy thousands of independent worker nodes and coordinate them in cohesive networks.

This is where Energy Web X is planned to play a key role, with each set of worker nodes deployed by Energy Web, its customers or over time any energy enterprise governed and anchored to unique ‘pallets’ on the Energy Web X chain.

‘Hot rock’ battery gigafactory in Israel

Thermal energy storage solution provider Brenmiller has inaugurated what it believes to be the first ever TES gigafactory in Dimona in Israel’s Negev Desert.

The facility, financed by the European Investment Bank, is equipped with advanced machinery to produce the company’s patented bGen TES modules for its pipeline of clean energy projects.

A rooftop PV system is in place to help power the operations with renewable energy.

The bGen technology uses crushed rocks as one of the mediums for storing heat, with ‘charging’ possible from both renewable and thermal sources. These then heat water flowing through a separated piping cycle to enable steam to be delivered to the user on demand.

“We’re Israeli – we’re building technologies that can reach up to 760oC in the middle of the desert – we know a thing or two about harnessing heat, and we’re ready to share that knowledge with the world,” said Avi Brenmiller, founder and CEO at Brenmiller Energy.

The new facility will serve as Brenmiller’s primary manufacturing hub and its production lines are expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2023, producing up to 4GWh of the bGen TES modules annually for industrial and utility-scale implementations.

Flying VTOL electric vehicles

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) electric vehicles are gaining growing interest for next-generation mobility and the latest entrant to this field is the University of Miami College of Engineering, which has launched the Miami Engineering Autonomous Mobility Initiative (MEAMI) with a consortium of world-class academic, industry and government partners.

Building on earlier research, MEAMI aims to advance autonomous mobility technology and anticipate challenges to its implementation in today’s cities.

Applications are plentiful, from air taxis to assisting in quick transport of patients to hospitals, to rapid transit from busy downtown areas to the airport.

The consortium intends to investigate the many aspects of autonomous mobility, including advanced propulsion, sensing, integration of satellite signals with local sensing, artificial intelligence, clean energy and energy storage and advanced materials.

In addition, issues of safety, air traffic control, regulatory aspects related to noise, cybersecurity, and other relevant matters are planned to be addressed.

Specifically over the next two years, the initiative will focus on five verticals: advanced technological development, operations, regulations and safety, public relations, development and advancement.

The two companies intend to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading using the Elia Group’s traXes energy services platform together with Powerledger’s xGrid software platform for P2P trading.

With flexible consumption becoming increasingly more important as renewable energy levels increase, Elia Group’s ‘Consumer-Centric Market Design’ is aimed to facilitate the transition towards a more flexible energy system by enabling energy service suppliers to provide their customers with better products and incentives and thereby monetise their flexibility.

The MoU with Powerledger is intended as a new step in realising this goal.

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David Zenner, Head of Consumer Centricity at Elia Group, describes it as “an exciting collaboration” that will help to demonstrate how grid operators can enable energy transactions between the prosumer and the consumer.

“It will validate new functionalities in the traXes-platform and will bring us closer in realising the consumer-centric energy system of the future. Moreover, it will enable us to make more and better use of renewable energy in the future.”

Elia Group’s traXes platform is designed to enable the efficient and secure sharing of consumer data between market parties and is complementary to Powerledger’s xGrid blockchain-enabled platform, which provides users with the choice over what renewable energy to use and trade renewable energy peer-to-peer.

The venture is seen as combining the strengths of the two platforms.

Dr Jemma Green, co-founder and Chairman of Powerledger, comments that it contributes to a more efficient distributed grid.

“This project shows how different parties can join forces in the new electricity market design, in transforming the energy system towards more flexibility.”

The initiative with Elia is the latest in a series of initiatives that the Elia Group has undertaken with blockchain in its operations with others, including e-mobility and the market integration of electric vehicles e-mobility and renewable energy certificate trading.

In addition, Flexcity, a subsidiary of Veolia, has the opportunity to offer new services to its partners while strengthening its participation in the balance of the network.

Together with the team of Equigy, Flexcity was able to rapidly and successfully prequalify for the aFRR services of Dutch TSO TenneT and integrate this into its flex portfolio.

Equigy, a joint venture between TenneT and other European TSOs, enables the integration of small, decentralised units through its crowd balancing platform and connection to TenneT’s aFRR process.

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The platform is intended to set a new European standard for smaller aggregated flexibility to participate in different TSO markets, thereby enabling the partner TSOs to work together to promote and improve the market for renewable energy.

“There is a big and growing potential of small aggregated flexibility for balancing the grid. In order to effectively unlock that potential, we believe that aggregators should be connected fast and easy,” says Martin van ‘t Verlaat, Equigy Chief Technology Officer.

“The Flexcity and Equigy teams did a great job together to achieve this in a record-breaking time.”

FLEXCITY reports that several of its flexibility partners will participate in this new service.

Jeroen Schut, Netherlands Country Director, says a big portfolio is created and ready to go live.

“For our partners, this market enlargement also represents a new opportunity to enhance the value of their installations and thus reduce their energy costs.”

This balancing process should further encourage the integration of renewable energies into the network’s electricity supply by compensating for their intermittent nature.

In addition to TenneT in the Netherlands the other TSO partners in Equigy are TenneT in Germany, Terna, Swissgrid, APG and TransnetBW,

For the pilot, which was launched in Q2 of 2021, a rule-based transmission system operator (TSO)- distribution system operator (DSO) coordination approach was developed and implemented on the Equigy platform.

The concept and its implementation were then tested with a battery connected to the distribution grid of ewz

With ewz acting as the aggregator and controlling the battery, it was used to provide local congestion management services to ewz and tertiary reserve energy to Swissgrid, while respecting the distribution grid constraints.

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Effective coordination procedures between TSOs and DSOs are becoming increasingly important as growing numbers of DERs are connected to the power system, especially at the distribution level. There is a need for services, typically provided by third-party aggregators, by both.

The overall objective of the pilot was to develop a coordination approach to enable the efficient utilisation of DERs between TSOs and DSOs while bringing the greatest benefit to the security of the overall electricity system.

The blockchain-based Equigy platform, of which Swissgrid was one of the founder members with TenneT and Terna and subsequently joined by Austria’s APG and Germany’s TransnetBW, is being developed to facilitate the use of DERs for system ancillary services.

With the blockchain technology secure and transparent data exchange is ensured among the participants, i.e. TSOs, DSOs and aggregators, and it offers the possibility of largely automating the TSO-DSO coordination processes.

Key achievements announced of the project are the conceptualisation of a coordination mechanism accepted by both the Swiss TSO and a large Swiss DSO and aggregator, as well as the further development of the platform to support the TSO-DSO coordination approach.

The concept is based on a ‘traffic light model’ and defines all required data exchanges among the respective parties.

Important features noted of the concept are the consideration of distinct aggregator and DSO roles, even if taken over by the same entity as was done in this pilot, and the multi-purpose use of flexibility which allows aggregators to provide both TSO and DSO services through the same interface.

Furthermore, the concept allows DSOs to perform grid security analysis with their own tools outside the platform, thereby minimising the integration effort.

In the initial pilot, which is planned to run over six months, Powerledger’s technology will be used by ‘prosumers’ with rooftop solar in Da Nang and Quang Nam provinces in central Vietnam to sell electricity directly to consumers.

The aim is to demonstrate how technology can be used to reduce energy costs with improved price transparency by establishing a local energy market.

Vietnam has become a major producer of solar power – the world’s tenth largest – but this increase in renewables has created imbalances for the grid which has resulted in intermittency issues.

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With the local energy market approach there is a financial incentive to encourage energy usage that aligns with intermittent generation from renewables, increasing the utility and profitability of the renewable assets and reducing the peaks in energy demand.

This in turn should reduce stress and strain on the energy grid with a reduction of curtailment and maintenance efforts as well as increasing resilience.

“As the energy landscape evolves, EVNCPC is committed to exploring new ways to meet our climate goals and the changing needs of our customers,” says company spokesperson Cuong Do Minh.

“This pilot project with Powerledger is a demonstration of that commitment and will help to shape the future of Vietnamese energy in years to come.”.

Dr Jemma Green, Powerledger chairman, says the project should showcase how, with the right technology, issues of intermittency and grid congestion can be overcome whilst still growing renewables.

The trial should also help to design suitable price mechanisms for P2P networks in Vietnam, based on the existing tariff structures and secure blockchain transactions.

The outcomes of the trial will be shared with electricity regulators and policymakers in Vietnam, to inform future decisions about technology-led solutions that enable greater proliferation of renewable energy.

The report, prepared with Australian energy sector blockchain pioneer Powerledger, states that commitments to meet the Paris Agreement are highlighting the need for new business models in the energy market, where blockchain technology can greatly facilitate real-time data management and verify the authenticity of decarbonisation claims.

Blockchain technology also ensures that once verified, unauthorised changes are not made.

Describing the rise of blockchain and its applications as one of the most striking innovations of the last 10 years, the report highlights how the technology can enable trust in the digital world with a trustless system based on an open and immutable distributed data repository.

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This ledger is updated as new records are added with all participants in the network having access to the latest version.

With trust in the use of energy resources key for their management, a transparent and enhanced ledger undergirded by blockchain technology can facilitate a broader range of transactions supporting energy distribution and trade, improving access to clean energy and accountability in the process, the report states.

Democratisation can also put individuals at the centre of the energy transition, allocating incentives and economic benefits to individuals and under-represented communities by enabling fractional ownership of energy assets, empowering individuals in their energy consumption choices, peer-to-peer trading, and energy investment opportunities at the retail level.

The report identifies seven energy sector use cases for the blockchain:
● Peer-2-peer (P2P) trading of decentralised energy
● Local energy markets
● Demand response and wholesale energy market trading
● Renewable energy certificates (RECs)
● 24/7 carbon free energy
● Metering and billing
● Grid management
● Electric vehicle charging.

In conclusion of the report, Blockchain technology for the energy sector, states that the green energy transition will benefit from a predictable source of clean energy that is transparently accounted for and easy to manage. A transparent platform is key to manage the grid securely and effectively.

The conclusion also addresses two issues that are not commonly discussed. One is around responsibility in a decentralised financial model with the responsibility for custody and safekeeping using virtual wallets lying on the individual.

The other is around security, with security likely to shift to individual customers and the digital wallets they utilise to make transactions. It is likely that new hardware and software will be designed, either or both by phone companies and blockchain companies.

An example is Solana’s soon to be released Android web 3-enabled SAGA mobile device, including Solana blockchain integration.

With the trend towards decentralised data, both software and hardware, e.g. phones, with the highest level of security and reliability will be in demand. In this context, a race to create phones and other necessary equipment to facilitate web 3.0 will be inevitable, the report suggests.

With the toolkit, businesses should be able to construct distributed computing networks that can execute sensitive business operations utilising data from multiple external sources while preserving the privacy and integrity of that data.

The worker node concept was developed to solve the challenge in digital applications such as 24/7 renewables tracking of delivering publicly verifiable results, without for example double counting of the renewables and without revealing commercially sensitive data such as on generation and demand.

This latter is particularly notable in the energy sector with for example the granularity of data and number of distributed energy resources as participants in the procurement of flexibility services.

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Energy Web reports that the Worker Node toolkit solves these challenges by enabling enterprises to configure, launch, and maintain distributed computing networks that ingest data from external sources, execute custom workflows based on business logic and vote on results in order to establish consensus without revealing or modifying the underlying data.

With concepts and components from blockchain technology, the worker nodes provide stakeholders with cryptographic proof that mutually agreed rules and processes are followed correctly, ensure computational outputs from business processes are correct and preserve the privacy and integrity of the data for auditing purposes.

Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web, says that worker nodes are the single most powerful Web3 technology for enterprise that he has encountered to date and they are in production supporting several of the Energy Web solutions.

“For a low carbon energy system to run, companies need to be able to exchange and perform computations on data from millions and eventually billions of people, businesses and clean energy assets. Using a decentralised network of nodes to do useful work produces better outcomes than giving all that data and responsibility to a single entity.”

Energy Web has made the Worker Node toolkit available on Github containing both a smart contract and basic Worker Node template based on a 24/7 renewable energy matching application.

The initial release includes business logic for 24/7 matching, enables users to authorise the issuance of certificates and allows them to set permissions for data input.

An ‘as-a-service’ version of the toolkit is currently under development as is the new Energy Web X public blockchain for governing and securing Worker Node networks, with both expected to be made publicly available later this year.

The project, which is set to launch in beta test form, is focussed on providing large electricity users as well as traders and other market players with energy certificates as guarantees of origin for renewable energy consumption and CO2 footprint monitoring on an hourly basis.

For Energinet, being able to prove that energy comes from renewables is key for their exploitation and with the hourly base in line with market settlement, new opportunities should be opened up for consumers to become ‘green’ while also laying the foundation for power-to-x sector coupling.

Currently most green warranty certificates for electricity are calculated via a match between consumption and production averaged over a year, with no certainty of matches between renewable production and consumption.

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A Concordium statement points out that the central element of the solution is energy certificates linking the production of energy with its consumption, for which a registration method developed.

Lone Fønss Schrøder, CEO of Concordium, says that the company’s blockchain is suitable for creating transparency and the verification of green energy.

“Energinet and the many consuming companies can now document their green energy consumption in their environmental reports and CO2 calculations and thus ensure against ‘greenwashing’.”

With the requirement that the certificates can be issued at short intervals, the solution is designed to handle a large number of transactions, grouping them in so-called Merkle trees, which enables documenting the correctness of these with a limited number of registrations on the blockchain. This makes the solution cheap to operate.

While the solution allows for public verification of energy certificates, detailed usage and production information is treated confidentially in the certificates, with consumers and producers having control over this data themselves.

Energinet launched the EnergiOprindelse project in late 2020 and has been prototyping it over the past year with interested companies.

The TSO envisages rolling out the solution gradually over the next years and initially for companies in Denmark. The intention also is to integrate other forms of energy beyond electricity.

Energinet in addition to its Energy Origin project is collaborating with the EnergyTag initiative, which is focussed on defining and building a market for hourly energy certificates as tradeable instruments.

The TSO also is participating in Energy Track and Trace, which was initiated together with the Elia Group and Elering for tracking and tracing across borders and forms a step to the EU Guarantees of Origin scheme.

The release, which follows the December release of the RPC (remote procedure call) nodes on the AWS marketplace, represents the next step in Energy Web’s ongoing plan to make its solutions available as ‘software as a service’ and enable their adoption without the need for specialised technical resources.

The Data Exchange Client Gateway is a key component of the Data Exchange solution, providing the UI and APIs for interacting with shared messaging infrastructure to send, receive and authenticate messages.

A main value proposition of the Client Gateway is providing a single, standardised integration method for many independent organisations to exchange information across various messaging channels, Energy Web states.

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The Client Gateway was developed in support of the data exchange solutions deployed in two projects in Australia – EDGE in Victoria and Symphony in Western Australia – investigating the potential of customer owned distributed energy resource marketplaces.

A key element is the role for a shared industry data hub to enable better utilisation of the resources by improving coordination between the market operator AEMO, distribution network utilities and aggregators with enhanced visibility on the resources and consistency across the market participants.

The two projects started in 2022 and while still ongoing, Energy Web reports that the overall results have validated the value of a shared data hub.

However, a key lesson learned was that integration needed to be simpler. The Client Gateway is an independent application that each market participant runs within an environment of their choice and the process of deploying and maintaining them across multiple companies was complex and required specialised technical knowledge.

In addition, coordinating initial installations and ongoing maintenance and update releases also was found to be challenging and time-consuming.

With its availability on Azure and potential application in multiple markets, the need for the specialised IT resources is obviated, while the time to install the application is reduced by 90%.

Additionally, users are able to natively integrate the Client Gateway application with other Azure services that they need to integrate with the shared data hub.

Energy Web anticipates continuing to expand its marketplace offerings ‘as a service’ via managed service, third-party resellers and self-hosted options.

The project, an initiative of Dutch-based blockchain R&D lab BlockchainLab Drenthe with support from the municipality and co-funding from the EU, was aimed to transact energy data to stimulate energy savings and efficiencies with rewards to homeowners for its provision with a local currency token.

The project was built with the German distributed ledger developer IOTA’s technology and has involved around 30,000 households so far.

At the outset of the project, which was launched in January 2022, 50,000 wallets were created, effectively one for all the households in the municipality.

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Via an app householders were then asked questions on their home energy setup and consumption patterns, with each item of data received by the municipality rewarded with EnergieKnip points sent to the app.

These could then be spent in local retailers for new energy savings devices, such as LED lighting or a thermostat, with the retailer able to exchange them for euros.

In the first phase €300,000 (US$322,000) was distributed to 9,000 active wallets, Adri Wischmann, co-founder of BlockchainLab Drenthe, has reported.

A second project was focussed on helping low-income families to reduce their energy costs, with 20,000 families being targeted, although in this case not to obtain data but to provide targeted financial support with a total sum of €5 million ($5.37 million).

While the project is ongoing, it’s already been a success, says Wischmann, commenting that a Dutch housing association has agreed to participate and make additional funds available for people living in accommodations provided by the association.

Currently EnergieKnip has around 30,000 active wallets and is the biggest public government blockchain project in the Netherlands, he says.

Trust to share data

A key point was that data had to be anonymous and not traceable to individual households and to this end QR codes were sent out in a randomised way across the municipality with which they could activate the app.

On registration, the app automatically created the user’s wallet for their reward tokens.

Other best practices were that participants had to understand all the steps of the set-up and that the obtained data had to lead to a direct benefit for energy consumers and the municipality via an easy to use platform.

The need for an incentive also was felt to be key, as not everyone is intrinsically motivated to be more energy efficient. This in turn raised the need for the distributed ledger technology to create the incentive reward token.

In addition to the benefits for the participants, Wischmann cites other benefits including the receipt of the data by the municipality enabling the improvement of future policies, the boost to the retailers and local economy in general with the extra revenue and the wider environmental benefits of energy saving.

Future use cases

Wischmann says that EnergieKnip is just the beginning and the project could be expanded by other communities as well as being expanded to similar solutions for different fields.

One is to stimulate tourism with a QR code in hotel rooms with rewards to spend in local facilities such as restaurants.

Another is fighting heat stress in city neighbourhoods with rewards to buy plants and trees to provide shade and uptake CO2.

“Our experience with Emmen shows just what an important role local government can play in generating creative incentivisation for local people, as long as it complies with privacy rules. EnergieKnip has proven that the willingness of local communities exists. Now it is time to build on this, develop other use cases, and act together in the interest of a more sustainable society,” he says.

Wischmann also states working on an initiative provisionally named ‘MultiKnip’ to have multiple purpose-bound tokens in a single wallet.

OPENTUNITY, with funding from the Horizon Europe programme, is aimed to support grid operators, prosumers and other market players to more easily provide demand flexibility to the grid and thereby accelerate its decarbonisation.

With innovative methodologies backed by advanced, interoperable software modules, the project is focussed on eliminating data silos and establishing standards for data exchange, all with a focus on creating value for end customers

As part of its activities OPENTUNITY will evolve and integrate an energy specialised blockchain as a distributed, fast and reliable energy dataspace for data exchange and service sharing among the participants.

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OPENTUNITY (OPENing the electricity ecosystem to multiple actors in order to have a real decarbonization opporTUNITY) is coordinated by project coordinators Etra R&D and includes 17 participants and three partners from eight countries in the project consortium.

The project will include 13 demonstrations using a common underlying digital infrastructure to test hypotheses and prove value for different technology and business use cases with a common theme, i.e. that distributed energy resources, properly integrated with the grid, can create value for both end customers and energy market participants.

These demonstrations will be conducted in four different countries, Greece, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

They are expected to benefit some 27,000 citizens with initial estimates forecasting the potential for innovations that are unlocked to reduce energy bills by 30% for end customers and greenhouse gas emissions by 91.2MtCO2e, primarily by making distributed energy resources a core part of grid planning and operations.

Other participants include the energy companies HEDNO and the Independent Power Transmission Operator from Greece, Elektro Primorska and Elektro Ljubljana from Slovenia, Estabanell from Spain and Azienda Elettrica di Massagno from Switzerland.

Energy Web is providing the underlying digital infrastructure for data exchange and NODES’ market platform will be connected to test the feasibility and interoperability of the ecosystem setup and the potential of a flexibility market in the different test sites.

The project runs to the end of 2026 with a budget of €10.8 million (US$11.8 million), of which the EU contribution is €8.5 million.

For the latest updates on EU Projects, visit the EU Projects Zone

After almost a year of deliberations, among its findings, the Commission has recommended that the New Hampshire Department of Energy should conduct a public review of how Bitcoin mining operations might be integrated into a statewide energy plan “with positive impacts for the electricity system, including contributing to more stable electricity grid, more sustainable generation projects and lower costs for consumers generally”.

“Such a review should include a focus on how New Hampshire law might enable ‘inside-the-fence’ arrangements that would support the development of renewable energy projects within New Hampshire,” the Commission stated, saying local and national experts in Bitcoin mining and their potential costs and benefits for electricity networks should be invited to contribute.

Notwithstanding the controversial high energy consumption of crypto mining, the Commission had heard that the interruptible nature of Bitcoin mining’s electricity demand may offer stabilising benefits to electricity grids and encourage the development of new energy resources including renewables.

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Governor Chris Sununu described the Commission’s report as comprehensive and timely, with “specific recommendations that would establish New Hampshire as a leading jurisdiction for the development of sound and effective applications of blockchain technologies.”

Legal and regulatory status

The Commission, charged to investigate the potential of blockchain technologies to promote innovation and economic growth in the state and in particular to address the legal and regulatory aspects, found that blockchain technology appears to be an important technical innovation with many potentially important applications in our human societies and economies.

However, the legal and regulatory status of the technology and applications such as cryptocurrencies and digital assets is highly uncertain, and this uncertainty is materially undermining innovation and economic development of new technologies, activities and industry.

Thus the New Hampshire government should devote resources to establishing a state legal regime that will offer an attractive jurisdiction for “the best responsible blockchain innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses, while protecting investors and consumers who use their applications”.

The New Hampshire report follows a November 2022 report in Texas that recommended giving tax incentives for Bitcoin miners which participate in flexibility schemes and for the use of flared gas that is used on site – an increasingly popular approach for crypto miners.

These reports illustrate the stark differences in crypto mining across the US, with states such as Texas actively encouraging it, while New York on the other hand has enacted a ban, albeit temporary.

Obviously many factors come into play and how it will play on the energy and economic fronts remains to be seen. Cryptocurrency prices and other factors such as the increasing mining effort required as more Bitcoins are mined are other factors.

In its latest update, the Bitcoin Mining Council estimates the global Bitcoin mining industry’s sustainable energy mix to stand at 58.9% at the end of 2022, only marginally up from 58.5% at the end of 2021, but showing a 16% improvement in technological efficiency at 22.4EH/GW compared with 19.3EH/GW the previous year.

The new blockchain application, which was initiated by Iberdrola, is aimed to enable the publication of companies’ compliance systems documentation and to facilitate the exchange of information during due diligence processes related to compliance risks in a reliable, simple and secure way.

Currently, information has to be sent and received manually on a company-by-company basis, which is costly. As companies will be able to voluntarily publish the documentation of their compliance systems in a structured way, it can be replaced with a simple consultation of this digital platform.

The use of blockchain technology guarantees the immutability of the deposited documentation, as well as its creation or modification date, and allows full traceability of each document.

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This aspect is of particular importance for compliance officers since, thanks to this record, it will be possible to prove the existence of a compliance system on a specific date during a possible legal process.

At all times, each company will be able to control which documentation it wishes to make public without any type of restriction or if, on the contrary, access to certain documents requires its express authorisation, once the request has been received from another user.

In addition, to ensure that users are authorised to act on behalf of a company or organisation, the platform will automatically carry out the appropriate checks at the companies registry.

Iberdrola says it has been the creator, promoter and funder of this project.

Other participants are Deloitte acting as an expert collaborator in regulatory compliance and technology, the Institute of Compliance Officers providing methodological support as well as promoting its dissemination and the Association of Property and Commercial Registrars of Spain, which is focussed on the strengthening of legal security and certainty in legal transactions.

The system, which will be accessible via the web and managed by the Association of Registrars, should become available in June 2023.

With this offer, companies may now configure and deploy a component of the Energy Web Decentralised Operating System (EW-DOS) with the push of a button – an operation that up until recently has required a team of developers.

The initial products are the Energy Web Volta and Energy Web Chain RPC Nodes, respectively the pre-production test and main networks of the legacy OpenEthereum client EW Chain, and the respective high performance Nethermind client versions of these RPC Nodes.

Over the coming months the organisation intends to expand these offerings to include additional components and public cloud marketplaces.

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RPC (remote procedure call) nodes act as a gateway to connect to a blockchain, and are required for any application that reads data from or initiates transactions on the EW Chain.

“The business value of Energy Web solutions is clear, but when it comes to implementation we need to deliver the user experience that enterprises have come to expect,” said CTO, Mani Hagh Sefat.

“With SaaS [software-as-a-service], things that used to take lots of time and effort can now be done with the click of a button. By offering EW solutions in cloud marketplaces, we can enable any business user to start using our technology and getting value from it right away.”

In a statement Energy Web states that its technology roadmap in 2022 has focused on achieving the one objective of making it easier for enterprises to use Web 3 technology to create real business value in support of the global energy transition.

A key pillar of this has been to streamline the way companies access EW solutions by offering them as-a-service in the cloud – similar to the many other categories of enterprise software.

During the first half of 2023, the organisation intends to both increase the number of EW services available, such as Data Exchange and Green Proofs solutions, and add more cloud providers, such as Azure and Google Cloud.

Looking to the long term, the organisation’s vision is to deliver all EW solutions, including the individual EW-DOS components, via a fully self-sovereign solution-as-a-service offering that delivers the simplified user experience of public cloud marketplaces with the flexibility and customisation features of existing self-hosted models.

In this offering, customers will have the ability to deploy EW solutions in multiple public clouds and/or their own environments.

The project by researchers at the US DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), believed to be a first for blockchain, has developed a framework to detect unusual activity on the grid, including data manipulation, spoofing and illicit changes to device settings.

Such activities could trigger cascading power outages as breakers are tripped by protection devices.

The framework named Grid Guard contains a combination of core cryptographic methods such as the secure hash algorithm and asymmetric cryptography, private permissioned blockchain, baselining configuration data, Raft consensus algorithm and the Hyperledger Fabric framework.

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By relying on hashing and the Raft consensus algorithm, if an entity tries to illegitimately alter a record at one instance of the database the other ledger nodes are not altered. They work to cross-reference each other and easily locate any incorrectly added data and remove it.

“This framework gives us a totally new capability to rapidly respond to anomalies,” says Raymond Borges Hink, who led the research at ORNL.

“In the long run, we could more quickly identify an unauthorised system change, find its source and provide more trustworthy failure analysis. The goal is to limit the damage caused by a cyberattack or equipment failure.”

He adds that the system, which uses tamper-resistant blockchain to spread configuration and operational data redundantly across multiple servers, can also help to determine in real time which of the latter – a cyberattack or equipment failure – triggered the fault.

The data and equipment settings are constantly verified against a statistical baseline of normal voltage, frequency, breaker status and power quality. Equipment settings are collected at frequent intervals and compared to the last good configuration saved in the blockchain.

This allows rapid recognition of when and how settings were changed, whether those changes were authorised and what caused them.

The project is part of the ORNL-led Darknet initiative, funded by the DOE Office of Electricity, to secure the nation’s electricity infrastructure by shifting its communications to increasingly secure methods.

Cyber monitoring of the grid can involve the processing of significant volumes of data. With the hashing on the blockchain, the computation is performed on the bulk data, which saves energy and reduces the data storage space.

Following the demonstration of the Grid Guard framework in ORNL’s grid research testbed, the researchers are extending the approach to incorporate communications among renewable energy sources and multiple utilities.

The pilot leverages Everledger’s technology platform to track electric vehicle (EV) batteries throughout their lifecycle to ensure responsible management during use and recycling at the end of their useful life. This will allow Ford to gain visibility on out-of-warranty batteries, validate responsible end of life recycling, and gain access to data such as recycled critical minerals produced and associated CO2 savings.

Everledger and Ford will use the battery passport solution to track batteries in various late and newer EV models for six months, working together with US lithium-ion battery recyclers Cirba Solutions and Li-Cycle.

EV battery tracking

To track the battery lifecycle, Everledger utilises a range of technologies, including various types of auto ID, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). 

During manufacture, Ford batteries and their inner modules are tagged with 2-D data matrix codes, which are then scanned with a cell phone by each organisation as the battery changes hands. These scans allow otherwise separated links in the value chain to report on and access information about a battery’s location, chemistry and other attributes and activities taking place, for example, transportation, disassembly and recycling.

The Battery Passport concept was first publicly launched at the World Economic Forum’s 50th Annual Meeting by the Global Battery Alliance (GBA), a multi-stakeholder alliance that brings together 110 leading international organizations, including Everledger, as well as NGOs, industry actors, academics and governments.

The passport is the digital identity of a battery which includes information about its materials and components and ultimately the battery itself. It can provide transparency of the battery supply chain as well as the lifecycle of the finished product.

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EV battery visibility

It is not only large auto manufacturers that can benefit from improved lifecycle management and verified claims of recycling. Battery repair garages, auto recyclers, auction houses, dismantlers and recyclers that encounter the battery during its life also benefit.

They will have more visibility to understand a battery’s chemistry and history in order to make faster, more informed decisions about how its contents can best be used, sold or recovered.

The Everledger-Ford pilot comes ahead of the new European Battery Regulation that will come into force in late 2022/early 2023 and require manufacturers to report on their extended producer responsibility for proper battery recycling. This pilot, conducted in the North American market, demonstrates how combinations of advanced technologies can streamline regulatory compliance and add efficiencies across the value chain.

Leanne Kemp, Founder and CEO of Everledger said on the partnership: “The Everledger Platform and its battery passport functionality positions stakeholders along the supply chain to verify a battery’s material provenance, chemistry and identity; and measure its sustainability and environmental impact alongside creating a multi-billion dollar global market for used batteries that maximises the recovery of raw materials and accelerates the development of climate-friendly mobility.

“A fully connected and transparent battery passport, secured by blockchain technology, allows electric vehicle manufacturers and owners to not only track and report the lifetime journey of each battery, but increasingly where those critical minerals originated and how those mines stack up with the use of renewable energy, enabling brands like Ford to more easily report on climate action and Scope 3 emissions.

“The automotive industry is currently on the verge of electrical transition, and the responsible environmental performance of electric vehicles is of great concern.”

In addition to benefits for auto manufacturers, participating recyclers expect to gain process efficiencies from being able to simply scan the battery to get essential information such as battery chemistry.

After six months of testing, Everledger will release the battery passport commercially, confirming they have a series of other automotive manufacturers and participants in the battery lifecycle interested in adopting and utilising the technology. 

The new coalition, which brings together a range of thirty organisations from the crypto and blockchain ecosystems, is intended to investigate the potential for these technologies to bring positive benefits to the sustainability agenda.

While many blockchain initiatives are designed to be energy efficient, their use is growing and proof-of-work consensus blockchains and Bitcoin mining in particular has come under particular scrutiny for its energy consumption.

The Coalition is convening working groups to tackle three specific issues:
● Energy usage, with analysis of the crypto industry’s consumption of energy and materials to build a clearer picture of its impacts on climate and nature.
● Potential for climate action, with an investigation into ways in which web3 innovations could tackle challenges facing the low-carbon transition at the pace required to hit the Paris Agreement’s targets.
● ‘On-chain’ carbon credits, with investigation of their role in addressing current flaws in global carbon markets, including lack of transparency around carbon offsets, the failure of markets to remove carbon emissions at the scale and pace required and the inability of many small businesses and indigenous communities to participate in carbon credit markets.

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In their activities the working groups will highlight industry standards and best practices as well as provide examples of tangible action that attest to how web3 technologies can support communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The wider aim is to foster education on web3 and to better inform governments on how to regulate the technologies and incentivise their development.

“An important and unique aspect of web3 is that it uses technology to support and reward direct community engagement and action,” comments Brynly Llyr, head of blockchain and digital assets at the World Economic Forum.

“This means we can coordinate the work of many individuals directly with one another, enabling collective action without centralised control – a powerful accelerator for grass roots action.”

Numerous blockchain initiatives have focussed on asset tracking, for example for renewable energies and carbon credits, while crypto miners have started steps such as participating in demand response initiatives.

Crypto impacts in US

The announcement of the new Coalition comes just days after the release of a report from the White House on the climate and energy implications of crypto assets in the US.

The study, with clear overlaps with the planned work of the Coalition, which should have a global perspective, reports that the energy usage of crypto assets currently accounts for between 0.9% to 1.7% of the national electricity usage – similar to that of all home computers or all the residential lighting.

Future demand remains uncertain, however, as the use has grown rapidly over the past year activities can be ramped up or down in response to market fluctuations.

Moreover, the demand is regional as crypto mining is highly mobile and for example, Texas has emerged as an increasingly attractive location, reaching an estimated 3% of local peak electricity demand. With continued growth the state could see an additional 25GW of new demand from crypto mining – equivalent to one-third of the current peak demand – raising potential challenges for reliability.

From an emissions perspective the study estimates crypto asset activity in the US to account for 0.4% to 0.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions, similar to that from the diesel fuel used in the country’s railways.

The report states that blockchain technologies in the US must be deployed in a manner that enables reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and calls on the government to facilitate innovation in the development of use cases.

Among the recommendations the report calls for the development of environmental performance standards for crypto asset technologies, the conducting of electricity system reliability assessments of project crypto mining operations and the collection of data on energy usage, fuel mix and other actions such as power purchase agreements and demand response participation.

The Crypto Sustainability Coalition has the Energy Web Foundation as representative of energy sector blockchain development.

Other founding partners include Accenture, Avalanche, Avatree, CC Token, Circle, Climate Collective, Crypto Council for Innovation, Emerge, eToro, EY, Flowcarbon, Heifer International, KlimaDAO, Lukka, NEAR Foundation, PlanetWatch, Plastiks, Rainforest Partnership, Recykal, ReSeed, Ripple, Solana, Stellar Development Foundation, STEWARD, Sustainable Bitcoin Standard, The Global Brain, Toucan Protocol and University of Lisbon.

The company, which has been in development over the past year, has stated its goal as addressing “two of the most critical problems affecting humankind – increasing energy demand and climate change”.

Its first offering, Volt-X – like other P2P platforms – is designed to enable transparent energy trading between producers and consumers and thereby support the increased penetration of renewables and other distributed resources.

Volt-X is based on the Ethereum protocol with the energy efficient proof-of-stake on the Global Digital Cluster Coin platform and is built on a microgrid architecture to connect small neighbourhoods and residential communities in local distribution networks.

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Smart metering is an essential component and the solution is reported to have undergone extensive testing with the common architectures, including RF mesh, GSM, PLC, RF and 3G/4G.

“The Voltreum application and cryptocurrency hold the key to ‘borderless’ and ‘decentralised’ energy trading between smart grid-enabled individuals, companies, neighbourhoods, and even countries,” says Bhakti Vaidya, an information security specialist and a co-founder of Voltreum along with computer application specialist Rahul Awati.

“The Voltreum app, platform and cryptocurrency will help incorporate solar, wind, water and other sources of renewable energy on the same microgrid, thus facilitating the shift to clean energy that’s available on demand, which has become an urgent imperative on a global scale.”

While Voltreum’s ambition, outlined in detail in its new white paper, is global, its primary uptake initially at least is likely to be India. Microgrids are a key technology for electrification in the rural areas and many of the distribution companies are challenged with aged infrastructure and poor financial health.

Voltreum envisages that peer-to-peer energy trading is an important element in addressing the discom challenges and that its implementation can reduce their burden by allowing them to focus on improving infrastructure and supply.

Voltreum is currently developing a proof of concept, prior to a pilot in Q1 of 2023 and a subsequent ramp up later in that year.

The company also anticipates securing seed funding before the end of 2022.

Blockchain has been gaining growing interest in India and in the energy sector. Australia based Power Ledger has piloted various P2P projects, most recently with Tata Power in Delhi.