The (Energy) Promise Land, Follow Us…
“The (Energy) Promise Land” is a low-carbon energy future that the world doesn’t have to wait for. Follow us, we’ll explain how accelerating ‘Lead Origination Velocity’ is the key first step…
We live in the age of decentralization amid The Third Industrial Revolution. The Internet decentralized information, giving anyone with a connection access to humanity’s collective knowledge. The web 2.0 and smartphones decentralized the tools of journalism, media, and content creation, giving anyone with a $100 computer the ability to publish their ideas worldwide. Bitcoin and the blockchain gave anyone with the Internet the ability to transmit, receive, and store value — censorship free peer-to-peer (P2P) commerce.
Although invisible, energy represents perhaps the most important network of all because it underlies each of the others, including providing power for smart devices, transportation (which will soon be electric), and even the Internet itself. In a previous post, we explained in detail why electricity constitutes the largest undisrupted market to date.
Blockchain technology, in conjunction with shockingly steep cost declines for distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar and battery systems (reference previous post and here), promises to unlock the next great leap in decentralization: distributed energy. For brevity, we’ll discuss the case for DERs in a future post.
While there’s been a lot of buzz about the potential of P2P or transactive energy (TE) trading that the energy blockchain revolution will facilitate, few understand how we get from our current centralized grid to this decentralized energy trading panacea. This is where Energy Blockchain Network (EBN) comes in. We understand that the true value in this space will be unlocked by those who can 1) create the registry of existing and all new DERs coming online (e.g. solar installed on a roof and working); and 2) rapidly facilitate the installation of these new DERs.
In a previous post, we discussed that the biggest challenge the renewable energy industry faces today with scaling DERs (e.g. rooftop solar, batteries, energy efficiency, etc.) is a lack of quality lead origination. We, a team of solar and renewable energy veterans with > 20 years experience in both startups and public companies, will leverage the power of the blockchain to rapidly accelerate lead origination velocity. Our first step will be to better incentivize solar and DER project Lead Originators by:
A) paying them the same day they submit lead info (instead of today’s industry standard of paying 6–12+ months down the line IF the project is built); and
B) piloting creative new reward models that give originators longer-term value and connection to the project, supply chain, and network. Additional details will be provided in the forthcoming documentation.
Introduction to Energy Blockchain Network (EBN)
EBN is a multi-sided platform which coordinates lead originators (sales agents/reps), engineers, developers, integrators, installers, utilities, customers, etc. to find & build energy projects. EBN is an interoperable market coordination and network infrastructure layer for the energy industry featuring first-of-its-kind solutions:
1. Rewards Program to Accelerate Lead Origination Velocity
Designed to recognize and reward value associated with originating, engineering, and installing DER infrastructure assets (e.g. rooftop solar PV, batteries).
- The Lead Registry will serve as a shared, trusted, and immutable registry to facilitate compensation for the value provided by participants who originate, engineer, and install new DER projects.
- The EBN ecosystem will leverage blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to establish the early structure (via smart contracts) needed to ensure value creators are adequately recognized and rewarded (compensated) for the value they deliver.
- When programmed correctly, blockchains and distributed ledger technologies are extremely effective at exposing who in a value (supply) chain actually delivers value.
- Formalizing the process and adding real-time, autonomously triggered events (via smart contracts) will increase value for early-state work. This will drive increased participation and leverage network effects of the ecosystem leading to a large increase in DERs coming online.
2. Programmable Processes for Building Asset Registries & Enabling Use Cases
Data captured during the Lead Registry process above will be used to build the DER Asset Registry so each DER infrastructure asset has a unique digital identity. Technical data will be structured in a blockchain-managed and organized DER Asset Registry, and provide an interoperable layer to coordinate information, customers, and industry activities related to lifecycle asset management and participation in the energy industry.
- The DER Asset Registry is a community registry of DER assets which will store and organize data on the blockchain to provide easy retrieval for various future energy+blockchain applications.
- The EBN platform encourages third-party application layer development and partnerships to enable existing and emerging market solutions.
Bringing It Home
With EBN, business activities are automated and managed using blockchain, distributed ledger, and smart contract technologies. The technologies are being used to enable unique, programmable methods to incentivize behavior that leverages game theory and mechanism design. The mission is to drive DER asset supply chain efficiencies and scale installations for a low-carbon future — today!
EBN is building an ecosystem that will lead the Energy Technology Convergence. In our next post, we’ll discuss Energy Technology Convergence in detail. Future posts will explain how EBN solutions will serve as the backbone for unlocking and enabling future energy+blockchain applications and use cases.
Special thanks to Max Webster for his inspirational contributions to this article.
For more information on Energy Blockchain Network:
Visit our website: www.energyblockchain.network
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Email us at: team@energyblockchain.network
