Mitsubishi electric along with the Tokyo Institute of Technology have brought up the idea of peer to peer energy exchange. This idea emphasizes on the trading of energy between individuals or organizations with surplus energy and those who are in the need of energy. It focuses on encouraging people to switch to sustainable energy and production of surplus energy, which they can trade as per the demand. This idea was brought up on the basis of blockchain technology as a medium for energy exchange. The company aims to commercialize this technology as soon as it is approved and obtains fruitful results in the trails.
Conventional blockchain vs New blockchain
Mitsubishi Electric has taken up the task of providing trade exchange platforms to ensure proper energy and exchange and Tokyo Tech has laid its emphasis on blockchain R&D and ways to modify it according to the market’s requirement. Generally in the case of conventional blockchain, to access or create a transaction block, it requires high performance computers which are capable of solving the required block’s puzzle or equation. But with the help of newly processed blockchain technology users can have access to transaction blocks with the company’s intervention and can interact with users or consumers with similar interests.
Generally the transaction or exchange of energy takes place in four easy steps :
- The consumer processes his or her request on the platform whether supply or need, with the help of his computer or mobile application.
- These requests are collected from various servers and each server starts to search for results for every particular request placed towards it.
- Then all the servers process their results to the main connecting server.
- Each request is matched to a similar request and a new block is created which keeps track of the transaction.
Hence the above four steps are the most crucial steps in the exchange process of energy.
Earlier, Japan has tried out similar methods and ideologies of energy exchange. It provided tariffs for providers who could transport extra and surplus energy. But it was observed that after a particular contract time there was no contribution available and the government had to search for new users. So the government retired this idea and instead opted for connecting users on an energy exchange platform. Since then Japan with the help of the firm Ricoh has taken measures with the help of blockchain technology in tracking renewable and sustainable energy sources and encouraging users to implement them and trade them.
