ACCIONA Energía has begun a venture to generally trace the renewable nature of its power generation worldwide through blockchain technology, permitting its clients who need it to check that 100% of the electricity provided is clean in real time and from anywhere in the world.
For the development of the early phases of the venture, called GREENCHAIN, ACCIONA Energía has come to an agreement with FlexiDAO, a company specializing in the arrangement of software tools for digital energy services to electric power companies. FlexiDAO was one of the start-ups chosen by ACCIONA in the second edition of its Open Innovation Program I’MNOVATION last June, which assessed 231 companies from 16 nations.
Since then, FlexiDAO has been working with ACCIONA Energía to build a commercial presenter to map out the renewable generation from five wind and hydro plants in Spain to its deliver to four corporate clients in Portugal. ACCIONA Energía thus turned out to be the first entity in Spain and Portugal to monitor renewable energy through the blockchain. For this presenter, a specialized blockchain platform for the electric power sector called Energy Web Blockchain has been utilized.
The subsequent step is to carry on to be implemented in new regions, beginning with the most appropriate markets for this type of service, i.e. those that do not have consolidated renewable energy certification systems, as is the case in numerous Latin American countries with a powerful presence in ACCIONA Energía, such as Mexico and Chile.
Belén Linares, Director of Innovation of ACCIONA Energía, said “Tracing the renewable origin of energy is an ever-increasing demand, associated with the growth of the corporate contracting market for green energy, and blockchain technology can facilitate this service considerably to clients in any part of the world. We are very pleased to take this first step along a route that will surely set the trend over the next few years.”
FlexiDAO co-founder and CEO Simone Accornero said “we are demonstrating that the traceability of renewable energy is now a viable proposition that generates real value for the consumer. Together with ACCIONA we want to be pioneers in showing that this blockchain-based system is commercially viable on a large scale”.
The benefits of the system are the straightforwardness of its incorporation with data systems, both by ACCIONA and by the end customer: simple access, scalability and the complete safety and privacy of the data ensuring blockchain.
ACCIONA also spearheaded the application of blockchain traceability in its two renewable power plants with battery storage in Spain: Barásoain (wind power) and Tudela (PV), both located in Navarre, under the STORECHAIN project.
