Description
We develop systems that integrate blockchain technology and renewable energy in novel ways. The aim is to offer a customizable complementary currency solution for communities that desire a high level of local renewable energy penetration, a way to promote real-time energy awareness, and a complementary currency in local circulation that supports locally active businesses.
The concept is based on the axiom that a prerequisite for a sustainably thriving economy is a renewable energy supply system and management of energy intensity of productive and consumptive activities. The current organization of the global financial system to a large extent ignores this axiom relying on a history of availability of fossil resources that is currently endangering climate stability. Recognizing this gap in the way the financial system interacts with the physical system, we are devising ways to reconnect them in the least disruptive ways possible. Introducing energy credits as a complementary currency may provide one such viable way for realigning economic expectations and the physical world thus establishing a trajectory for a sustainable societal transition.
To further this project we are working on:
- developing a simulation environment using agent-based modeling (ABM) to dry run and test different configurations and investigate the effectiveness of an energy credit system with real time demand response.
- Defining the blockchain and application characteristics and specifications that will eventually allow the deployment of such a tool as a plug and play option for communities
Publications List:
Sgouridis S. (2014). Defusing the Energy Trap: the Potential of Energy-Denominated Currencies to Facilitate a Sustainable Energy Transition. Frontiers in Energy Research. View More
Sgouridis S. (2012). Using Energy as Currency: Re-establishing the Bridge between the Financial and the Real World, Network Industries Quarterly. 14:8–11. View More
Sgouridis S., Kennedy S. (2010). Tangible and fungible energy: hybrid energy market and currency system for total energy management. A Masdar City case study. Energy Policy, 38:1749-1758. View More