The Asia region is set to match North America and Europe in the area of blockchain-based energy trading with the expanding market interest in a number of innovative projects involving distributed ledger technology (DLT).
From Singapore to Japan, the markets are embracing blockchain-based energy trading opportunities. Early global energy blockchain leaders, including Australia’s power ledger and LO3 Energy of the US, are actively involved in the region’s DLT. Asia is also a host to a good number of start-up fintech companies.
Power Ledger analyst Marrah Fry commented, “There is an immense appetite for blockchain-based energy trading in Asia. We have received a great deal of support for our two announced projects in this region.”
The Perth, Australia-based Power Ledger has projects in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines. Its project in Thailand is considered unique and is in collaboration with Thai renewable energy developer BCPG and a partnership with Japan’s second-largest utility Kepco.
Under the deal, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority allows blockchain firms free access to its network to give Power Ledger the ability to assist BCPG to offer peer-to-peer power trading.
“This further shows just how much interest exists for our blockchain-fuelled innovation across Asia,” Fry added.
LO3 Energy Australia director Belinda Kincaid said her company is also looking at blockchain energy trading opportunities in Asia and is scheduled to announce two new projects in Japan. She said the willingness of Asian countries, such as Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, to embrace blockchain-enabled energy trading makes the region attractive to investors.
However, she noted the region’s energy markets were less receptive and mature compared to advanced economies.
“It impacts the readiness of people to look at how this could be of benefit,” Kincaid explained. “Each market is different. But a lot of Asian utilities are intrigued and want to do some trial. They are generally quite receptive to learning more.”
Early this month, energy technology researcher and entrepreneur Dr. Richard Lohwasser, CEO of Germany-based Lition, rolled out a peer-to-peer renewable energy exchange platform in 11 German cities to service at least 41 million households.
Lohwasser said the launch of Lition is timely as the world is ready to start deploying smart systems in big cities that do not have a stable electric grid infrastructure and to incorporate intelligent technologies in existing infrastructures in towns with intelligent systems.
