Not everyone can have solar panels on their residence due to price, shade, renting or living in apartments. Such people may able to purchase renewable energy from systems that offer peer to peer (P2P) trading of solar energy across the regulated network.
The secure energy trading platform is based on crypto currency which is foreign to most of us but becomes clearer once examining the articles below. The market provider uses blockchain technology that allows the consumers to trade rooftop solar energy with one another, without the addition of market costs and commercial margins (a saving for the buyer). The seller gets a price which is more than the current feed in tariffs for solar but less than the uniform tariff. There are at least two trials of P2P trading happening in Australia and the links below outline them.
Firstly, blockchain technology is explained in the first half of this podcast from Renew Economy
Energy Insiders Podcast September 25 by Giles Parkinson and David Leitch.
Below are two examples of trials that have or are taking place from One Step off the Grid:
Origin Energy trials solar trading with blockchain start-up Power Ledger by Sophie Vorrath, Sept 21, 2017.
AGL tests household energy trading using blockchain in Melbourne pilot by Sophie Vorrath, May 26, 2017.
Postscript: AGL to expand P2P trial in Adelaide, as consumers embrace solar sharing. By Sophie Vorrath, 20 Nov 2017.
Postscript: AGL to expand P2P trial in Adelaide, as consumers embrace solar sharing. By Sophie Vorrath, 20 Nov 2017.