Andy Li: Using ELONCITY to Produce Clean, Renewable Electric Energy to Benefit the Public
ChainNews
Andy Li, is yet another Internet guru venturing into the field of blockchain technology. As early as 2000, Li was already known as the world’s leading pioneer in Internet infrastructure. For the past 20 years, Li has been at the front lines of the industry, using emerging systems and technologies before everyone else, particularly in areas of construction, integration, optimization, and transformation of Internet infrastructure.
During the process of exploring technology, Li’s understanding and knowledge of Internet infrastructure has continued to grow immensely. The main areas of concern that he observed went outside the boundaries of traditional Internet technology and extended into the field of electrical energy. In 2018, Andy hopes to use blockchain technology to help grow the field of electrical energy that he has studied for so many years now, and see ELONCITY’s new electrical energy program through to completion. Li hopes to finally solve dead-end loops in the evolving electricity industry.
Technology Makes the Application of Renewable Energy a Possibility
In the field of Internet infrastructure construction, Andy Li has always been in the front lines. To build MPLS (a technology using label-guiding data to support high-speed and efficient data transmission. It can support multi-layer internet protocol and accommodate second layer multi-data chain technology) Internet, using Packet over SO-NET (Synchronous Optical Networking, a technology used in the high-speed operation of backbone networks) running multiple large-scale backbone networks to deploy the earliest cloud computing data center prototypes in China. At every leap in Internet infrastructure, this project hosted by Li has become more and more widespread among “netizens.” This has only given Li a stronger sense of personal mission to build up public utilities.
“The Internet (including Content Distribution Network CDN/ECN), logistics network, and power grid all have similar principles of operation, especially in improving user experience, reducing and stabilizing backbone network flow (demand-side traffic shaping), and improving backbone network efficiency. I received inspiration from CDN network, and then during the process of assisting Alibaba to optimize their super data center, I found that the same principle can be used in promoting power grid efficiency. Therefore, my focus shifted from weak electricity to strong electricity. I hope to make good use of what I have learned, not only to solve the Internet infrastructure problem, but also to promote rapid growth of the power grid, improve renewable energy’s absorption capacity, and help transform renewable electric energy into our primary energy source.”
Li’s thought process behind his problem-solving method is a careful but precise engineering-type process — finding the core problem and working to find the most effective solution. Since his early years of joining the industry, Li’s pursuit of growth has been consistent. To be truly committed to the construction of Internet infrastructure, one must start at the root, vigorously cut costs, focus on maintaining top quality, reduce steps in production and distribution, and thereby reduce costs in order to produce a winning industry product.
From 2009 to 2011, during his time at Alibaba as a Researcher, Li was responsible for building the first direct-current super data center in Asia and around the world. During this process, Andy came to understand the advantages of direct-current networks.
“Traditional data centers use UPS to maintain the integrity of data. This makes electric energy be repeatedly converted between AC and DC, resulting in energy losses of up to 37%. That is why form then on that I dedicated my research in direct-current power distribution. Today, we can see that 240V high-voltage direct-current electricity has become the standard for super data centers in China and other countries across the world.”
After much careful research and testing, Li also suggests that the national Internet industry should unite and move large-operation cold storage data centers to Northwest China. China’s Northwest region has an abundance of renewable energy sources and cooler ambient temperatures to help not only reduce land and energy costs, but also to increase the efficiency of integrated super data centers.
Alibaba, for various reasons, did not follow Li’s suggestion to move the super data center to Northwest China at the time. However, several years later Alibaba and top domestic and foreign Internet companies followed through with the migration to China’s renewable energy-rich northwestern region and adopted a large-scale deployment program for 240V high-voltage direct-current energy.
“People always criticized me for being in a headlong rush for innovation. In the innovation of Alibaba’s super data center, I moved to quickly and failed. But later, I proved that my judgments were right. My vision was right.”
Because Li’s natural intuition for innovation continually faced industry restrictions, Li chose to silently move on. Li proved the possibility of using direct-current power grids for large-scale deployment in residential and commercial buildings and he understood from experience all of the many advantages that direct-current electricity could bring to the community. Therefore, Li chose to continue working towards his own ideas, and gave everything that he had to begin his business of “benefitting the people.” Improving distributed smart energy storage systems for renewable energy projects, helping residents use local free solar energy and energy storage technology, and solving the electricity supply issue for a lower price and reduce dependence on petrochemical energy.
“In the logistics network, we use a large quantity of warehousing and data mining to help us to manage inventory and shorten completion time for orders. In the CDN/ECN network, data mining is used to find hotpoint content, and then the disk is used to copy hotpoint content to the nearest network link in order to improve user experience. Although electricity follows the law of conservation of energy, fortunately, we were able to save energy with distribute power generating equipment such as PV batteries and small H-axis wind turbines. By doing this, we can utilize energy locally without having to go back to the power plant. We make extensive use of machine learning to help each microgrid understand its electricity demand. Then we can find a balance in renewable energy supply and demand with the goal of improving the user experience and reducing energy costs for a cleaner and more affordable energy source.”
In Addition to Technology, We Need a Shared Mission and Lofty Ideals to Achieve Clean Energy
Li, is regarded as the greatest in the field of Internet infrastructure. His peers respect him not only because his strong technical skill,but also for his distinctive personality and great ideals. In 2011, Li left Alibaba, and his resignation letter is still discussed on the Internet today. The focus of the letter is to not give up your dreams.
In his last speech in 2009, the famous English historian and intellectual, Tony Robert Judt, pointed out the following problem: “Operational and inequality issues in American society today it makes us worried. Why it is so difficult to imagine a different society? We seem to have lost the ability to question the moment, let alone how to provide alternatives to our issues. Why is it so difficult to design a different system of public interest that is outside of our imagination?
Andy seems to be the “minority” from Judt’s speech — the one who calls things into question, seeks new solutions, and designs new systems to benefit mankind. A summary of “How to Evaluate Andy Li’s Departure from Alibaba” is as follows:
Andy Li, an early pioneer in Chinese internet backbone facility, first joined Alibaba because of Alibaba CEO Jack Ma’s inspirational words, “Do a truly meaningful business.” However, later, Li left Alibaba because the business model for its e-commerce infrastructure gradually turned into the same dilemma that ChinaCache faced.
In their discussion, Internet users expressed respect and admiration for Li, They understand that Li’s goal is to pursue business that will benefit the public. “Andy is a person full of ideas. He gets rid of people with bad taste.” Another person said, “I can see that true public service is the beat of his heart.”
Internet users sense that “in a revolutionized and experimental course of history, innovators will always encounter tension between order and revolution.”
Let’s Try Using Tony Judt’s View of “Public Intellectual” to Further Understand Andy Li’s Actions:
“What we have seen in the past 10 years is that after steadily transferring public responsibility to the private sector, there are not any obvious advantages. To begin with, utilities are extremely inefficient. The reason is that the government does not have the technology to operate these utilities, and brokers and middlemen will take away profits from public business, if they continue to be run by the government. These public businesses lose money, and taxpayers foot the bill. Although privatization can be profitable under government supervision, government-driven policies and private sector guidelines for maximizing investor profits have serious conflicts. As a result, investors owns utilities, not people. Most power distribution companies in the United States continue to increase service fees, eventually causing customers to foot the bill. However, the more serious issue is the issue of loopholes in laws and policies that turn the middle-class into the main taxpayer. The middle-class pays the extra service and maintenance fees, only serving to widen the gap between rich and poor.”
From Internet infrastructure construction to the energy field, the biggest problem facing Andy Li is not technology innovation. As a technology elite, Li has already constructed an advanced electric power solution based on distributed renewable energy and smart energy storage systems. However, out-of-date power industry mechanisms and complicated industry interest groups are still the major obstacles for technology innovation. Despite difficulties and experiencing many things that he disliked, Andy Li still decided that throwing himself into the energy public industry was something worth fighting for.
“I used to think that in order to do something that I wanted to do, I needed to have the power to do it first. So I desperately tried to fight and perform to gain more power by getting promoted, and I hoped that I would have enough strength to do the right things. But then I found out that you shouldn’t’ be in other’s way. The unspoken rule for the executives was not ‘make-it,’ but rather ‘do not make mistakes.’ There is an old Chinese saying, ‘not seeking glory, but seeking no mistakes.’ These people are ensuring that no one touches other’s big chess.”
“Our energy storage device, iCan, debuted in 2016 at CES (International Consumer Electronics Show). Even though it was half the price of the competition, we still could not get it onto the market. Later in early 2017, iCan was demonstrated in Southern California Edison (California’s second best power company) ‘s future family showroom. We originally thought this would be the key to unlocking iCan sales, but after patiently waiting for three quarters we still didn’t receive any orders.”
“We didn’t know it then, but grid operators who worked with the centralized power supply model didn’t really want to change the old industrial structure of the power system. After all, that would mean changing their own lives, and they didn’t want to lose their jobs.”
In the past several hundred years, the traditional centralized electricity system have significantly contributed to the power-production and economic benefits. However, in recent years power network distribution costs have exceeded 50% of electricity bills, causing large electric power plants to break down under the pressure of ever-growing grid costs. Therefore, the centralization of the centralized power supply system no longer satisfies future energy development requirements. Global energy supply methods have been shifting away from centralized and towards a decentralized system.
Recently, the cost of renewable energy has been dropping. Due to the rapid growth of electric vehicles, energy storage technology has seen widespread benefits and the price of energy storage equipment is also dropping. Renewable energy will be more economical than conventional energy for the foreseeable future.
Energy consumer awareness in the information age has been on the rise. The ever-growing demand for sophisticated and smart electricity calls for more distributed, renewable energy projects, and the economic benefits of distributed renewable energy are beginning to emerge as well. This is the development opportunity that Andy Li had in mind in 2018 with the ELONCITY community model.
In the past, people criticized Li for being too far ahead of the times, but this time, Andy was perfectly in line with the times.
“We will never put our interests ahead of our clients, or we will achieve reform. I would like to tell the shareholders that we have to embrace the future and face the challenges. The era of a permanent job is gone. If it is not Andy today,someone will come along tomorrow or the next day to innovate the industry. If you don’t change your own life, someone will come along and change it for you.”
Create A Shared Economic Ecology For Clean Electricity
“In March 2017, we went to San Juanico, Mexico, to see the off-grid power supply market. We were shocked to discover that the local people were far more familiar with energy storage systems than US citizens. That is why we threw our resources into developing an off-grid power supply system, and we received our first order in just six months. We saw that the local people were so happy to use our “continuous power” electricity system. We were greatly encouraged, and we continued to create solutions to meet the needs of local residents. The numbers of installed units began to grow rapidly. The data cleared up all of our doubts about the size of the market, and we became more confident.”
Through the process of exploring of the market, interpreting the unspoken rules of the traditional power industry, and communicating with clients, Li and his team increasingly understood that people desperately need a new energy production and distribution system, and that they should actively advocate for the decentralization of the renewable energy industry. They hoped to unite various organizations and communities across the world to develop the ELONCITY Model. This is a community-centric model that uses a distributed renewable energy system to create a safe, healthy, fair, and vibrant future for energy.
Based on the design from Li and his team, ELONCITY is a highly efficient energy storage system that flexibly provides renewable energy storage and distribution (exchange) by using smart network deployment for the community’s smart micro-grid. It is technology that conducts smart transaction scheduling, and automatically balances supply and demand within the network.
By using continually developing battery energy storage technology, photovoltaic arrays, small wind turbines, and renewable fuels available in the community as an energy source, the deployment of a new power infrastructure can help more communities build a decentralized micro-smart power grid to balance local renewable energy supply and demand. By connecting regional power networks, we can produce a more extensive community power micro-grid. And by substantially increasing system efficiency, we can achieve true power interconnectivity and create a balance in supply and demand at the city level. In doing this, we can achieve our vision of renewable energy used to meet 100% of our energy needs.
“We are very grateful for the blockchain technology that allows us to use such a mechanism for the continued growth of decentralized infrastructure. I am also very grateful that our team for not being short sighted in the past four years. Compared with other energy chain projects, we can launch our project faster. With self-replicating of the communities, the projects can be well developed within 24 months and help solve the renewable energy utilization problem.
Only by achieving community power autonomy and finding an economic ecology that can be shared by all of society can we help clean electricity supplied by renewable energy to become an extensively used “primary energy.”
To achieve their vision for clean electricity coverage, ELONCITY will provide royalty-free Energy Network Protocol (ECTP), including all open-source software and hardware. This protocol will distribute into more community smart micro power grids, so that more regional power networks can use high-efficiency energy exchanges and reach full energy autonomy.
The core of the protocol is a blockchain-based exchange system that uses AI calculation in real-time to recommend fair transaction prices. By using encrypted tokens (ECT) issued by ELONCITY, dynamic pricing and real-time power trading can be done. In addition, the intrinsic value of ECT will be reflected in ELONCITY’s own power storage equipment.
Users who purchase household energy storage devices that are protocol compatible (from POMCube or Netzero, for example) and who use equipment for storage and trading can earn ECT tokens. ECT tokens can then be used as a subsidy to motivate communities to support ELONCITY’s energy network protocols and further reduce the cost of energy storage equipment.
“Through the foundation, we can public the blockchain transaction system, AI computing, energy storage systems and other related IOT technologies, EMS, BMS/BMU, PCS, user interface and App, as well as DC-BUS transfer technology. Therefore, there is no need for the manufacturer to repeatedly develop similar technology. This will reduce the cost for procuring equipment so that the cost of locally produced renewable energy can be heavily reduced.
The foundation hopes that contracted manufacturers can help us to accomplish this mission and accept ECT tokens as full or partial payment. The foundation also hopes that real estate developers and system integrators will only collect a reasonable profit, to help such systems reach the community. In this way, we can produce clean and low-cost renewable energy and it also allows us to publicly and fairly use ECT and energy dynamic mapping to regulate the balance of power supply and demand and maximize the use of distributed energy resources. The foundation hopes that BLSP (Basic Load Service Provider) will be competitive, effectively complement the shortage of local distributed energy resources, provide electricity with reasonable profits, and scientifically help reduce electricity costs. The foundation also hopes that ECT tokens can be used for renting local transportation vehicles to reduce the cost of personal vehicles, and improve the community’s ability to absorb additional energy.”
Li believes that blockchain technology based on shared consensus is crucial to building a future of collaborative and decentralized renewable energy. Blockchain technology token economic will become a very effective catalyst for promoting power (production) consumers, power product and service providers, financial partners, local governments, public organizations, and more stakeholders. They can all share in the benefits. This will enable a safer, cleaner, more economical regenerative energy source and support future energy sharing.
“I hope that I can use ELONCITY for good and make clean and renewable energy the world’s primary energy source. Changing the world’s energy structure can take a lifetime. But if I can spend the rest of my life working to this end, then I will gladly do it.”
Andy Li — Brief Introduction:
ELONCITY Founder, Andy Li, is an Internet expert dedicated to IoT, to change human dependence on traditional power distribution networks. Li served as the Chief Technical Officer of ChinaCache and as a Researcher at Alibaba Cloud Computing. For global super data center power distribution, Li was the first to suggest the use of a direct-current power distribution network to improve the efficiency of data center power usage. Currently, Li’s advocated concept of “data center direct-current” has already become an industry trend. In his twelve years at Cisco in the United States, Li mastered traffic engineering and conducted in-depth research on network intelligence marginalization, which Li considers to be more efficient than backbone network. In 2014, Li founded POMCube, a company concentrated on the development of high-efficiency energy storage systems controlled by cloud computing. In 2018, Li founded ELONCITY, hoping to apply blockchain technology to the transformation of renewable energy to make renewable electric energy a more convenient and economically advantageous option for regular people.
Andy Li — Key Technical Landmarks:
Early-1998: Successfully built and operated the first MPLS Internet in Asia
Mid-1999: Assisted China Telecom to become the first to run 155Mbps Packet over SONET Internet in Asia, and promoted speedy Backbone Internet in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Mid-2001: Assisted in building China’s first 10 GPS backbone Internet
Mid-2004: Assisted in building Beijing and Tianjin’s first 40 GPS backbone Internet
Late-2007: Promoted the use of high-speed fiber optics Internet in the integration of many small data centers (the first cloud computing prototype)
September 2009: During his time as a Researcher at Alibaba, he built the first direct-current super data center in Asia and the world. He suggested moving data centers to the northwest and suggested building a large offline data center in Northwest China where there are ample renewable energy sources and lower ambient temperatures to improve data center efficiency.
Late-2014: Founded POMCube to use distributed energy storage systems to solve local electricity supply issues.
Mid-2016: Began research in the blockchain technology, dedicated his research to the commercialization of blockchain technology in the public energy sector
Early-2018: Founded ELONCITY, with objective of applying blockchain technology to solve issues with the application of renewable energy, and make renewable energy the world’s major energy source
