SHANGHAI, Oct. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A Shanghai-based international start-up, Energo Labs is now reaching South Korea market, with an aim to create a decentralized autonomous energy (DAE) community. Energo uses blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, to allow residents with solar PV panels to sell energy to their neighbors without a middle-man.
South Korea is currently one of the world's largest energy importers, relying mostly on oil and liquid natural gas imports to produce energy, and most energy producers are operated by the government and utilities. However, as South Korea's export industry grows, electricity demand is expected to increase by over 1% every year. Meeting this demand requires a balanced electricity portfolio that not only decreases reliance on energy imports but also decreases carbon emissions produced by the energy sector.
One possible solution to meet this growing demand is decentralization, where energy can be produced through multiple sources distributed to nearby users, rather than the current centralized situation where a few organizations control all the production of energy in remote locations. Taking decentralization one step further means energy producers can be located anywhere, and can provide energy to whoever around them needs it.
Energo provides solutions that use microgrids and allow energy producers to sell energy to energy consumers. This can be real-time peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, where someone can ask for a specific amount of energy and pay money through the Energo app, or by using clean energy stored in the microgrid battery and paying the producer directly with the monthly electricity bill.
Energo's core products are based on the Qtum blockchain platform and include a hardware infrastructure that is used for measurements, transactions, and the settlement of clean energy. Each house in the microgrid will be installed with a smart meter that digitizes the amount of energy produced by a solar panel as well as the amount of energy consumed by a house. The smart meter can be connected to the Energo app to buy and sell energy.
South Korea is one of the world's fastest growing gigawatt-markets for photovoltaic (PV) cells, and in 2014 it was one of the world's top ten PV installer. This makes it a great location for peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading projects, where neighbors with solar PV cells can buy and sell energy with each other at a price cheaper than the utility price.
Blockchain is important in this application so that transactions, such as producing or consuming energy, cannot be modified and are thus secure. Energy transactions are done using Energo's TSL token, whose exchange in the Korean market will be released in late October. Blockchain also eliminates the need of a third party to ensure security and approve transactions, so it removes the possibility of corrupt or missing data.
As electricity demand in South Korea grows every year and the country need to find ways to reduce carbon emissions at the same time, such solutions encourage clean energy to be consumed in an efficient and reliable way, which will be critical in the future of smart grids and microgrids to attain grid resilience.
