It will always be associated with bitcoin and the financial systems, but blockchain technology is far more than this. It can be implemented in a number of different ways and promises to revolutionise industries and various other sectors, functioning as a seal of digital trust. It is basically an open and transparent means of sharing data via the Internet, guaranteeing it can't be changed or adapted during the time it's in cyberspace. The use of this technology in the energy sector is also on the rise, and it is becoming an increasing popular option in projects geared to testing the decentralisation of the energy distribution model as we know it.
Energy transition is transforming the sector and introducing changes that open doors to the democratisation of the production of electrical energy, in addition to creating new challenges for traditional producers. The latter are currently facing a series of issues for which they need to provide a rapid and efficient response, subject to missing the ‘innovation train’. Decentralisation, digitisation and decarbonisation are the three Ds guiding the strategies of the major energy players, which are having to deal with an increasing number of competitors in the production of energy.
Start-ups, towns and cities and private citizens are the new pawns in the energy chess game, capable of producing electricity both for their own needs and for sale to third parties, both traditional producers and others. However, for a business model to be viable, all these players need to be part of the same community or microgrid, sustained by technologies such as blockchain.
In Portugal, the cities of Lisbon and Porto have already taken the first steps towards the creation of these ‘energy communities’. In the capital, for example, a project is in the pipeline for the installation of a 2 MW photovoltaic power plant on a piece of unused land in a cemetery, with a view to producing energy to be consumed by the city itself and sold to third parties. In Porto meanwhile, and with the support of the Porto Energy Agency, a photovoltaic power plant project is underway geared to schools and education, in addition to a tender for the installation of 34 power plants that will enable the city to save around 200,000 euros per year. Nevertheless, the energy community model and the legal framework for the topic will need to be defined before all this becomes operational.