Australians want to trade surplus solar energy on blockchain

An organization in Australia will use blockchain to record how it trades excess energy from solar panels.

PowerLedger, a local startup in Australia, is behind the project, which is located in a retirement village in Busselton, Western Australia. The startup is exploring use cases for blockchain technology that backers believe will bring significant changes to life.

Residents on Australia's west coast believe that blockchain, a cryptographically secure ledger that records transactions through a distributed system, may be the solution to Busselton's excess solar energy, which averages 300 days of sunshine a year.

PowerLedger co-founder Jemma Green's idea is to allow residents to sell excess energy to power companies and trade with each other.

“Consumers want to be able to control their own energy production and consumption,” she said. “We want to be able to show that this technology is simple and accessible and that anyone can use it.”

Raspberry Pi mini-computers will be used to track the energy use of homes. Owners can then set up a market for their excess energy. Now PowerLedger wants to test the various schemes by running trials. The company hopes to deploy them in Perth and Victoria in 2017.