Spanish Renewable Energy Operator to Trace Electricity Generation With Blockchain

Spanish renewable energy company ACCIONA Energía is going to deploy blockchain to trace electricity generation, according to an announcement published Dec. 17.

ACCIONA Energía is an international global renewable energy operator, that reportedly produces emission-free energy for over 6 million homes. The company is recognized as one of the largest renewable energy developers, with more than 9,000 MW owned and installed.

ACCIONA started the project after it reached an agreement with FlexiDAO, a Barcelona-based startup that offers software tools to electric power companies for digital energy services. With this move, ACCIONA plans to allow its clients to check the provenance of electricity distribution.

Per the announcement, ACCIONA and FlexiDAO have been jointly working on the development of a commercial demonstrator that tracks the supply chain of renewable electricity generation from five wind and hydro facilities in Spain to four corporate customers in Portugal.

Now the company is looking to implement the technology in new areas, including markets that do not have a consolidated renewable energy certification system. Belén Linares, Director of Innovation of ACCIONA Energía, stated that “blockchain technology can facilitate this service [tracing the renewable origin of energy] considerably to clients in any part of the world.”

Energy companies and utilities globally have been applying blockchain technology to their supply networks and operations. Earlier this month, the South Korean government announced it will spend 4 billion won ($3.5 million) to set up a blockchain-enabled virtual power plant (VPP) in the city of Busan. A VPP is a cloud-based distributed power plant that integrates the idle capacities of multiple energy resources in order to optimize power generation.

In November, two energy divisions of German tech giant Siemens joined a blockchain-driven energy platform to promote the use of decentralized technologies in the sector. Siemens officials reportedly believe that blockchain technology will help increase interoperability in the area, linking consumers with energy producers and network operators.