Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power trial to turn electric vehicles into mobile atms
Highlights
- Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power, the City of Santa Clara’s Municipal Electric Utility, have successfully implemented a blockchain-based solution for measuring and monetizing renewable electricity discharged to electric vehicles.
- Power Ledger’s blockchain platform tracks and automates the tracking of low-carbon fuel pathways, enabling Silicon Valley Power to monetize its renewable energy platform through carbon credits.
- Power Ledger now in discussions with Silicon Valley Power regarding future commercial deployment.
Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power have completed a blockchain trial that monetizes electric vehicle charging infrastructure, creating the potential for tokenized carbon credit trading.
Power Ledger’s blockchain-backed platform was trialed to track and manage the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit generation from solar panels and electrical vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as credit trading.
The LCFS is administered by the California Air Resources Board, and requires businesses that import or produce fuels over a set carbon intensity to purchase ‘carbon credits’ to offset emissions. Currently, this data is collected in spreadsheets and is reconciled quarterly.
“This has been a pioneering project. Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power have established a template for a blockchain enabled solution for the measurement, reporting and verification of carbon credits, replacing a manual collection process that could often take months to validate,” said Power Ledger chairman Dr Jemma Green.
“In the future, this could mean electric vehicle owners could make money out of their cars,” said Dr Green.
The trial was held at the Tasman Drive parking garage in Santa Clara, California, where Power Ledger’s blockchain platform was linked to a 370kW solar system, as well as 49 electric vehicle charging stations.
The solar and charging data produced from the Tasman infrastructure was recorded as smart contracts on the blockchain platform, which then created a digitized LCFS certificate.
This certificate contained a cryptographic hash of the information calculated in real-time, which was then sent to Silicon Valley Power’s wallet, enabling Silicon Valley Power to monetize their electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
“Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power have demonstrated a potential use case for creating a secondary market with digital exchange for tokenizing and trading LCFS credits,” said Dr Green.
“Blockchain technology creates a decentralized marketplace, enabling a more efficient and transparent method for exchanging assets, including carbon credits.”
Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power are now in discussions regarding commercial deployment.
Electric vehicles represent the fastest growing sector of auto sales globally, with sales increasing by 73 percent in 2018 and Tesla’s Model 3 Sedans the biggest seller.
