The Special Relationship Between Energy Sector and Blockchain

by Cristiano Gatti | Mar 7, 2018 | The Urban Media Lab

According to Don & Alex Tapscott, authors of the book “Blockchain Revolution, “Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.” Based on transparency of network, blockchain is incorruptible (a huge amount of computing power is needed to override the entire network), and it could solve the problem of trust.

In energy sector, blockchain technology shows a lot of promise. For example, it is possible that blockchain is used to execute energy supply transactions or to provide the basis for metering, billing and clearing processes. Other possible areas of application are in the documentation of ownership, the state of assets (asset management), guarantees of origin, emission allowances and renewable energy certificates.

Therefore, it is possible to use blockchain to map and keep track of how much clean energy is produced. It is important because, nowadays, clean electric energy is generated from the sun, wind, or other renewable sources, but it is indistinguishable from those generated by fossil fuels. According to Jesse Morris, an energy expert at the Rocky Mountain Institute, tradable green certificates don’t work. Data management based on blockchain could fix this by combining business with sustainability and participation. This kind of technologies seems promising in energy sector because of its peculiar design. Although this has been a matter of centralized power plants, there is a growing number of smaller distributed energy producers that generates networks of peers such as electricity producers (for example, rooftop solar panels and electric-vehicle batteries) and consumers, connected via the grid, that depend on shared sets of data.

According to this scenario, actual energy system is fundamentally based on a central provider that collects information on how much energy is produced by every renewable-power plant. In a second step, intermediaries brokers deal between buyers and sellers of these certificates and another player is responsible for monitoring the purchase. It is clear that the complexity of the system and the lack of transparency concern a lot of potential buyers or sellers.

For example, according to Jemma Green, cofounder and chair of Power Ledger, a startup developing a blockchain-based platform that allows producers to trade energy peer-to-peer with consumers, it generally takes 60 to 80 days for an electricity producer to be paid. This is an example of above-mentioned inefficiency that “rewards only who holds privileges”. With a blockchain-based system, producers can be paid immediately because players could simply trade energy with one another.

Blockchain technology has the potential to radically change energy as we know it, by starting with individual sectors first but ultimately transforming the entire energy market. For example, Power Ledger has demonstrated that it is possible turning an apartment building into a microgrid based on a shared system of solar panels and battery storage. LO3 Energy set up a neighborhood microgrid in Brooklyn. Grid operator TenneT TSO and German storage company Sonnen are working on a community-based model for solar power and battery storage.

However, as Jemma Green says, “blockchain technology adds a level of sophistication to the market by enabling those more granular transactions” and the traditional energy system has not yet implemented a method to deal with that. A likely solution is given by Energy Web Foundation, a global non-profit organization focused on accelerating blockchain technology across the energy sector. Energy Web Foundation will be a test bed for promising use cases: based on Ethereum, Energy Web Foundation will validate transactions will rely of 10 major energy companies that have signed on as affiliates (such as Shell, E.On, Eneco, Ptt, etc.). In the longer term, the aim is not only tracking renewable-energy certificates but also equipping homes and buildings with a software that automatically trades power to and from the grid based on real-time price signals.

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Sono sempre più le esperienze di utilizzo della blockchain nel settore energetico. In questo campo, l’obiettivo non è solo arrivare a mappare i certificati energetici ma soprattutto ad equipaggiare ogni edificio con un software che, in modo automatico, vende e compra energia dalla rete in tempo reale in base ai segnali di prezzo.

The 3 Most High-Tech Cities In The World

by Cristiano Gatti | Jan 5, 2018 | The Urban Media Lab

By 2050, it’s likely that two-thirds of the world population will be living in urban areas, according to the World Urbanization Prospects. The 2014 Revision realized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In accordance with the paper, all world regions are expected to urbanize further over the coming decades even if at different speeds. So, investing in developing urban areas that can create opportunities for people is becoming more and more important.

Another key study, realized by 2thinknow, a data innovation agency established in 2006 in Australia that analyzes innovative cities, have ranked the most high-tech cities in the world. Based on 162 standard City Indicators from the City Benchmarking Data, their analysts collect quantitative and qualitative data about cities.

The theory is based on the fact that innovation moves from an idea to implementation and, then, to communication. According to this, indicators are grouped into three areas:

• Cultural Assets (measurable sources of ideas, i.e. walking city, education level, sports stadium, youth activities);
• Human infrastructure (soft and hard infrastructure to implement innovation, for example policing, waste management, GDP per capita, political transparency, and so on);
• Networked Markets (basic conditions and connections for innovation such as Government IT policy, neighbors market size, smart device, foreign direct investment, …).

These three macro indicators produce a total score that allows to assess all cities into four award categories:

• Nexus Cities that indicate a critical connection for multiple economic and social innovation pre-conditions across multiple industry segments;
• Hub Cities shows dominance or influence on key economic and social innovation segments, based on current global trends;
• Node Cities are globally competitive cities with competitive performance across many innovation segments;
• Upstart Cities are not globally competitive but with broad improvement across multiple indicators can achieve next status.

Table 1 shows the most innovative cities in the world according to Innovation Cities Index 2016-2017 realized by 2thinknow:

In third place, we find Tokyo (score of 56). The capital of Japan reaches a peak in venture capital investments system. Undoubtedly, 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are an extraordinary engine of innovation in different sectors. For example, Tokyo is developing innovative ideas in the field of driverless taxi service, hydrogen cars, electronic passes, facial recognition technology, multi-language device, security systems and even artificial meteor shower.

New York ranks second (score of 59). Tech companies employ hundreds of thousands of people and LinkNYC, the network of free WiFi hubs that covers the entire city, has over 500 kiosks (named “Links”) in the city for public use. The aim is to cover all the boroughs with 7,500 Links because “Internet access is not a luxury,” de Blasio said. “It’s not something optional. It’s something everybody needs.”

At the top, there is London (score of 60): despite Brexit, the city has continued the race in developing a smarter and more innovative public transportation system. The massive renovation to London’s Underground known as Crossrail will reach completion in 2018 at a cost of $20 billion. In addition, London is a sort of global headquarter of startuppers and programmers from all over the world: according to 2thinknow, the city hosts the larger number of innovators that almost any other city in the world.

And Italy? In the Top 100, there are only Milan (29^th) and Rome (51^st) with a score of 49 and 46 points respectively. To enhance the quality of innovation in Italy, a more participated approach in designing commons as transportation, culture and urban renovation is needed.

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Lo studio condotto da 2thinknow sulle città più innovative dal punto di vista tecnologico mostra ancora una volta quali siano i modelli vincenti da seguire in questo campo. Un monito, soprattutto per l’Italia, che piazza solo una città, Milano, nelle prime cinquanta posizioni.