Blockchain project to assist storage of renewable energy
The Energy sector is going through a massive transition from centralized power generation to distributed and renewable power generation
The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, or MOBI, the international technology consortium has announced the launch of a global standard for integrating blockchain technology into a decentralized vehicle charging network.
MOBI is the brainchild of over 30 participants including Bosch, Hyperledger, IBM and IOTA.
The project, which was announced in May works to solve the issue of storage of excess energy generated by wind or solar mechanisms. This is a huge issue for the renewable energy industry as batteries are very expensive. The project uses the significant storage capacity of electric vehicles by plugging them into decentralized energy grids to store renewable energy.
Called the Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (EVGI), the working group’s first design specifications seek to lay the foundation for decentralized charging networks that better use excess green energy. It explains systems that can enable “vehicle-to-grid-integration,” “tokenized carbon credits,” and “peer-to-peer applications,” the announcement explained.
Founder-COO of MOBI, Tram Vo explained that setting a global standard for integrating blockchain into a decentralized vehicle charging network will offer benefits to firms representing “all sides of the electric vehicle and charging ecosystem”.
He added that “Electric vehicles, chargers, and electricity producers can have a secure identity, communicate with a standard messaging format, and automatically record transactions such as charging, generation, and exchange on a distributed ledger.”
Top automotive companies Honda and General Motors (GM) co-chair the organisation. GM had previously filed a blockchain patent for a solution to manage data from autonomous vehicles. The system aimed to provide “secure” and “robust” data distribution and an interoperable exchange to all stakeholders involved.
The EVGI standard is chain agnostic, aimed at ensuring that “pertinent data attributes and functionalities of each use case are available for organizations to utilize in creating their own applications,” the announcement further explained.
Senior project engineer at Honda R&D Europe, Christian Köbel, explained that the energy sector is going through a massive transition from centralized power generation in big power plants, towards more distributed and volatile power generation.
“Decentralization and the concept of direct P2P interaction is set to become a key factor in leveraging this new market and building meaningful tools for energy-conscious end customers,” he said.
Green energy is the new talk of the blockchain town with Ripple collaborating with Energy Web Foundation for an “Energy Web Zero” protocol aimed at decarbonizing distributed ledger networks.
