Power Ledger of Australia will be using its blockchain technology in Italy to enable households to trade renewable energy between each other. Italian renewable energy utility Alperia SpA selected Power Ledger as one of the winners of its Alperia Startup Factory Innovation Camp to award the contract which registered 230 applications from 37 countries.
As per the contract, Power Ledger says it will run the trial project between January 2020 to May 2020 and will integrate its technology into smart meters at Alperia's dedicated test sites initially to identify and calculate benefits of the product suite for participating customers.
If all goes well, Alperia may expand the Power Ledger offering to its larger customer base. "Power Ledger's peer-to-peer trading technology could put our customers in the driver's seat and give them the possibility to not only protect their investment but maximize their contribution to a carbon-free future," said Anna Lena Hörter, Innovation Manager and Project Lead at Alperia that claims to have a customer base of 280,000.
The Australian company says its technology will be used by Alperia to explore a number of new services for the Italian renewable energy utility for its commercial and residential customers.
A feed-in-tariff (FIT) free solar PV market since 2013, Italy can make use of blockchain enabled renewable energy technology to protect consumers from volatile retailer prices and monetize excess solar, said Power Ledger.
Recently, market intelligence firm IHS Markit identified Italy as among some prominent residential solar markets in Europe (see 23 GW DC Solar Installations In Europe In 2019).
Power Ledger has been running similar blockchain enabled renewable energy trading projects back home in Australia, along with Malaysia, India and Japan (see Virtual Solar Power Project Launched In Australia).