Day 2: Energy and News

I am currently reading a news article talking about a contest that is currently being held by the United States Department of Energy. They are offering $5 million U.S. for the American-Made Solar Prize Round 5. This competition is designed to accelerate commercialization for products needed for widespread solar power and manufacturing. The money is being rewarded to those who come up with hardware and software innovations that help to advance the solar industry. The focus of this prize is on underserved communities being able to gain access to solar energy and renewable power. Many entrepreneurs across the United States will be able to compete for this prize. I registered for a webinar on the 13th of this month at 3 pm that will explain more about how this competition works.

I have spent time working with distributed ledgers, so I wonder if there is any way to use one to help benefit solar energy in the United States. There is one thing, according to Quora, that allows ledgers to be used for green energy for things like:

• Peer-to-Peer Energy trading models: The New Zealand based company Vector is working with Power-Ledger, an Australian start up, for blockchain based peer-to-peer energy trading where pro-sumers trade excess electricity or surplus solar power without a middleman. Candela Coin startup working on first blockchain peer-to-peer solar energy system for eco-friendly mining and hopes to allow people to transfer solar energy to others in their communities using Candela coin as a medium of exchange.

• Distributed Energy Grids: Brooklyn Microgrid and Grid Singularity are looking to facilitate the exchange of granular and private data in the energy marketplace with blockchain tech.
• FInancing Renewable Energy Projects: use blockchains to crowdfund renewable energy projects without a middleman and automatically get a cryptocurrency stake in the project for those who can't afford bank/ traditional financial services. One method is " tracking the charging of electric vehicles at a big parking garage with solar panels and batteries, and creating “digitized tokens” of their value. "