LO3 Energy, a US headquartered blockchain firm, has entered into a collaboration with Vermont’s Green Mountain Power (GMP) to unveil a commercial local energy trading platform in the north-eastern US state of Vermont.
Both companies together have rolled out an app, dubbed Vermont Green, for GMP clients, linking domestic businesses such as ski resorts, dairy farms and craft breweries with owners who have installed rooftop solar energy panels and looking to earn additional income by selling excess power production.
In addition to P2P sharing, companies are provided the facility to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) from solar energy producers through a bidding process facilitated by LO3’s Pando platform. Presently, the platform is on trial, with the company aiming to scale it up on successful testing.
Lawrence Orsini, founder and CEO of LO3 Energy, highlighted the huge demand for sustainable energy in the province:
“Vermonters are among the most environmentally conscious in the country. There’s a huge appetite for local businesses to be 100 percent renewable and at the same time there’s an increasing amount of home solar production.”
GMP has associated with roughly 265,000 households and business clients in Vermont. The company intends to transform into 100% sustainable energy provider by 2030. To achieve the objective, the company intends to utilize domestic energy markets and distributed energy facilities.
On the basis of this collaboration with LO3, prevailing business clients can negate their carbon footprint by purchasing RECs from domestic residential solar energy producers.
REC trading can be automated using smart contracts. The Pando platform permits customers to set up offer price and allocate daily funds, with blockchain smart contracts handling the entire trade process.
LO3 Energy intends to establish community microgrids using its permissioned Exergy platform, which employs XRG token. Grid participants can purchase and sell surplus solar using blockchain platform, with XRG tokens facilitating real-time transaction settlement.
Some time back, LO3 was funded by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation Group and Shell Ventures. Industrial giant Marubeni is conducting an energy trial in Japan with LO3. Notably, Japanese enterprise Kyocera Corporation is also conducting a trial of a blockchain virtual power plant (VPP) in association with LO3.
LO3’s associates include Direct Energy, Siemens, European Power Exchange, Centrica, Portland Energy Conservation, Braemar Energy Ventures, German utility Allgäuer Überlandwerk and Energy Exchange Australia. In the meantime, Australia’s Power Ledger is another P2P energy trading enterprise which recently inked its first commercial contract.
