Token projects associated with blockchain’s energy sector have become increasingly popular among investors, with three such projects, Energy Web Token (EWT), Power Ledger (POWR) and WePower (WPR), gaining triple-digits percentages since the beginning of the year. As highlighted in a report on Cointelegraph.com, concerns about energy production, resource consumption and the impact such matters have on the environment have become a topic of debate as of late. With innovations in technology making it possible to maximize energy efficiency, as noted by the news outlet, blockchain technology makes it possible to utilize energy grids to incentivize renewable energy creation through a flexible marketplace that can connect energy buyers and sellers.
Among the protocols working to make energy generation and consumption more resourceful is Energy Web Chain, which, as described by the firm, is a “public, enterprise-grade blockchain platform built for the energy sector’s regulatory, operational, and market needs.” As highlighted by Cointelegraph, the project’s website explains that “Energy Web is accelerating a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of open-source, decentralized, digital technologies.” Since launching in June 2019, the news outlet notes, the project has established partnerships with internationally recognized companies such as Volkswagen, Siemens and Hitachi. Once Energy Web Chain’s virtual machine (VM) is fully developed and integrated, Cointelegraph explains, different parts of the energy sector could become interconnected, which include grid operators, software developers and vendors. Energy Web Chain’s operational token, EWT, recently made a new all-time high (ATH) of $19.85 on March 18, as indicated by the news outlet, a few weeks after the token was listed on major crypto exchange Kraken in the beginning of the month.
Another energy project that Cointelegraph notes has made considerable progress since its inception in May 2016 is Power Ledger, which is a blockchain-enabled software platform that makes it possible to trade renewable energy and environmental commodities both locally and globally. Headquartered in Australia, Power Ledger is working on creating a blockchain-powered system where any power device or electrical resource has a digital identity and is connected to a market in real-time that facilitates transactions between them, as indicated by the news outlet. Power Ledger operates on the Ethereum network as a peer-to-peer energy exchange platform, and, as described by Cointelegrpah, uses a two-token system consisting of POWR and Sparkz to ensure consistency across the protocol’s software. While POWR is a tradable token on the open markets, Sparkz is a stable token which, the news outlet explains, is used when units of electricity (kWh) are purchased or sold on Power Ledger’s platform. Momentum really started picking up for POWR at the end of January, Cointelegraph notes, when renewable energy began gaining more attention in the media. One of the most prominent partnerships of the year for the project came in the beginning of March, when, as highlighted by the news outlet, Power Ledger made an alliance with India’s largest integrated power company, Tata Power-DDL, which was followed by the POWR token rallying to $0.50, its highest level since 2018.
The third project that has been making waves in the blockchain energy sector this year is WePower, which Cointelegraph describes as a green energy-trading platform that connects “energy suppliers, corporate buyers and energy producers for easy, direct green energy transactions.” Like Power Ledger’s POWR token, WePower’s native token WPR is also an ERC-20 token, which the news outlet notes functions as a payment method on the WePower network, and is used to standardize and increase the existing energy investment system’s available liquidity and could also help in reducing prices for participants of the network. According to Cointelegraph, trading activity for WPR started to pick up at the start of February when Power Ledger delivered its Elemental platform to Mojo Power, an Australian energy firm founded in 2015 that offers a more transparent way of buying energy. After launching the Elemental retail energy marketplace on February 1, the news outlet highlights that the price of WPR surged from lows of $0.011 to a new ATH of $0.05 on March 24.
To conclude, Cointelegraph explains that as the world becomes more mindful of climate and energy production-related matters, blockchain energy project-linked tokens may very well have potential of more growth. In addition, the news outlet notes that blockchain technology projects have the power to optimize global energy marketplaces and are in a good position to gain more market share as distributed ledger technology (DLT) goes mainstream.
- EnergyWebChainWithNativeTokenEWTisApublicEnterpriseGradeBlockchainPlatformLaunchedInJuneOf2019havingAlreadyEstablishedPartnershipsWithGloballyRecognizedCompaniesLikeVolkswagen/SiemensAndHitachi
- BasedInAustraliaPowerLedgerWithNativeTokenPOWRrunningOnEthereumIsAblockchainEnabledSoftwarePlatormThatMakesItPissibleToTradeRenewableEnergyAndEnvironmentalCommoditiesBothLocally&Globally
- WePowerIsAgreenEnergyTradingPlatformThatConnectsEnergySuppliers/CorporateBuyers&EnergyProducersForEasyDirectEnergyTransactionsWithNativeTokenWPRalsoAnERC-20tokenRunningOnEthereum
https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-based-renewable-energy-marketplaces-gain-traction-in-2021