Blockchain-enable renewable energy trading startup Power Ledger is applying its network technology to a whole apartment block for the first time, through a partnership with Yolk Property Group.
The Yolk Evermore development is located within White Gum Valley, about three kilometres from Fremantle city centre in Western Australia. Part of the government-funded Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) sustainable living innovation project, the building will be equipped with solar panels and battery storage technology.
Through the Power Ledger technology, residents in the 24 units will be able to monitor their energy use and trade excess renewable energy, ultimately reducing all residents’ power bills.
One of Australia’s most well-known blockchain startups, and considered a leader in the Australian cryptocurrency space, Perth-based Power Ledger raised $34 million in its initial coin offering in October, exceeding expectations for interest in its 350 million POWR tokens.
This deal with Yolk Property marks the first time a residential development in Australia has been built to use blockchain technology with solar-power trading between residents in mind.
However, it follows Power Ledger’s first commercial deployment of its blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer energy trading platform in Melbourne in March this year.
In Melbourne, the startup partnered with Greenwood Solutions, a renewable energy auditing and installation company, to connect a number of solar panels to strata apartments and units.
At that time, Power Ledger co-founder and managing director David Martin told StartupSmart the project would allow people to share the benefits of renewable energy with neighbours.
“Power Ledger is focussed on creating a platform for consumer-owned, low-cost, low-carbon energy systems and this deployment in Melbourne brings us a step closer to our goal of democratising power,” he said.
In the US, Power Ledger has also partnered with not-for-profit Helpanswers to roll out its trading platform to hundreds of sites at schools, low-income housing developments and industrial plants, and in Japan it has partnered with Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO).
In May, Power implemented its system at Northwestern University in Chicago, allowing the university to trade excess energy within its own campus, and between additional sites.
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