What’s next for blockchain in energy? Despite the potential challenges, it’s clear that there is significant potential for blockchain in the energy industry. Research by Global Market Insights predicts the blockchain energy segment to grow from $200 million in 2018 to $3 billion in 2025. While it’s uncertain exactly what those blockchain solutions will look like, research by Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews found that 60% of analyzed projects are currently based on Ethereum. This number perhaps distorts the number of projects that are being built on energy-use specific blockchains or private, permissioned systems. One of the biggest questions is …

Niklas Nikolajsen, the founder of Swiss crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse, predicts that Bitcoin (BTC) will move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) once the Ethereum (ETH) network has proved the algorithm’s success. Bitcoin’s current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm — the pioneering concept which in fact pre-existed Bitcoin, but has since come to be indissociable from the cryptocurrency — “will probably change in the future,” Nikolajsen argued. In outtakes from an interview conducted for a German TV documentary — recorded back in October 2019, but uploaded on April 6 — Nikolajsen said: “[Bitcoin’s move to Proof-of-Stake] is not planned, but the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, …

My journey into smart cities and their future development was a really big surprise, as the way I arrived there was not something that I had planned. I was working as the chief information officer for a company in Northern California called O'Reilly Media when I got a call from a headhunter who asked if I would consider being the chief information office for the City of Palo Alto. I can vividly remember — it was only about eight years ago — my feeling when she asked the question. The first thing that came into my mind: I would never …

Chinese energy company, Shanghai Gas, announced an expansion of its blockchain efforts following a successful trial partnership with supply chain management blockchain firm, VeChain (VET), on March 31. Shanghai Gas, founded in 1865, is owned by utility services company, Shenergy Group — which claims to occupy more than 90% of Shanghai’s gas market. The firm has an annual supply of over 8 billion cubic meters. Shanghai Gas expands blockchain adoption Shanghai Gas’ trial used distributed ledger technology, or DLT, provided by VeChain to comprehensively monitor its supply chain and identify opportunities for efficiency savings and reduced operational costs. The expanded …

Canadian conservation authorities and technology firm Insolar are conducting a test-bed blockchain project for renewable energy management. Within the scope of its Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP), on April 1 the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) announced a collaboration with blockchain specialist Insolar to leverage the technology for managing distributed energy resources (DERs). Ontario’s long-term energy plan has reportedly identified DERs as an essential policy strategy that will help to close the growing gap in electricity supply as the region works to replace 30% of its conventional power production with sustainable sources over the next 15 years. Data flows …

Australian blockchain firm Power Ledger and French green energy retailer ekWateur are betting that consumer choice can help spur the transition to sustainable energy usage. In an announcement on April 1, the two firms revealed that they will be offering almost a quarter of a million French residents the opportunity to customize their energy mix, using blockchain technology to securely certify its source. Green choices The new partnership will involve connecting ekWakteur’s network of over 220,000 electricity meters across France to a new blockchain-enabled tool from Power Ledger, dubbed Vision. EkWakteur — a green energy retailer and aggregator which supplies …

Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company BlockApps has partnered with software consulting firm Optimum to develop a blockchain solution for tracking energy usage. A founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), BlockApps is the developer of a cloud-agnostic blockchain platform, STRATO, designed to serve as a flexible base layer for various business network transactions and activities. Optimum is a software consulting firm focused on the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction industries. As part of a strategic partnership announced on March 27, Optimum has now joined the BlockApps Partner Network — a group of technology and service providers and blockchain experts cooperating …

I chose artificial intelligence as my next topic, as it can be considered as one of the most known technologies, and people imagine it when they talk about the future. But the right question would be: What is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence is not something that just happened in 2015 and 2016. It’s been around for a hundred years as an idea, but as a science, we started seeing developments from the 1950s. So, this is quite an old tech topic already, but because of the kinds of technology that we have access to today — specifically, processing performance and …

The Missoula County Board of Commissioners in Montana, United States, has extended its green regulations for cryptocurrency miners, which are designed to control the energy consumption of the industry in the county. The regulations, which require crypto miners to set up their operations only in light industrial and heavy industrial districts, and only after they have been reviewed and approved as a conditional use, are now extended until April 3, 2021. County authorities initially adopted the rules a year ago, with a view “to protect the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of county residents.” For the sake of …

Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Sonnen Group announced a partnership with the Energy Web Foundation (EWF) to use EWF’s blockchain to create a virtual power plant (VPP) in Germany on March 12. The virtual power plant will comprise a distributed network of residential energy storage systems intended to absorb excess wind power and reduce Germany’s renewable energy curtailment. With Germany shutting down coal-fired and nuclear energy plants in the coming years, the country has seen a boom in renewable energy production as a myriad of green energy producers launch or expand operations to meet demand. However, the seasonal nature of both …

On March 9, blockchain technology provider Unibright (UBT) announced a partnership with German startup Wasserkraft Mittelrhein to use the Unibright Framework to facilitate decentralized renewable energy trading. The partnership will see the firm join Wasserkraft Mittelrhein to facilitate trading, monitoring and data analysis of renewable energy produced by decentralized power plants using the Unibright Framework. Unibright proposes a “smart grid” system, where disparate small electricity producers engage directly with energy consumers via blockchain technology. Unibright to provide blockchain technology for “Project Power-Buoy” Wasserkraft Mittelrhein is an innovative power coming aiming to generate renewable energy using hydroelectric buoys. The “strombojen”, or …

India is fostering a digital future via Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Digital India” initiative: A national blockchain strategy that includes quantum computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence as digital technologies become the primary platform for economic activity and growth. The IMF and the World Bank have forecasted that India’s GDP will grow at the rate of 7%–8% for the next few years, driving a rapid rise in its hydrocarbon-fueled energy demand tied to growing urbanization, rising incomes and a steadily increasing population. Studies suggest that India’s share of total global primary energy demand is set to roughly double to around …