Spain’s Acciona Energía Using Blockchain For Traceability Of Renewable Power

News | December 18, 2018 By:

Spanish renewable energy company Acciona Energía is using blockchain technology to allow its clients to trace renewable energy in real-time from any location in the world.

Acciona Energía, a subsidiary of Spanish conglomerate group Acciona, is company focused on developing renewable energy projects, including small hydro, biomass, solar energy and thermal energy, and the marketing of biofuels. It also has assets in the field of co-generation and wind turbine manufacture. The firm is the developer, owner and operator of Nevada Solar One, the world’s first solar thermal plant and the third largest facility of its kind.

Acciona Energía recently started a project, dubbed “GREENCHAIN,” to implement the traceability of the renewable nature of its electricity generation worldwide through blockchain technology. For the initial phases of the project, Acciona partnered with FlexiDAO, a company that specializes in offering software tools to electric power companies for digital energy services.

FlexiDAO, which was part of Acciona’s open innovation program I’MNOVATION, has been working with Acciona to develop a commercial demonstrator to ensure the traceability of the renewable generation from five wind and hydro facilities in Spain to its supply to four corporate clients in Portugal. For this demonstrator, the companies used a specialized blockchain platform for the electric power sector called Energy Web Blockchain.

The next step is to introduce the new service in countries that do not have consolidated renewable energy certification systems, as is the case in several Latin American countries where Acciona has a strong presence, such as Mexico and Chile. According to Acciona, the advantages of the blockchain solution lie in the simplicity of its integration with data systems, both of Acciona and the end client: ease of access, scalability and the complete security and privacy of data that blockchain ensures.

Belén Linares, Director of Innovation of Acciona Energía, said that tracing the renewable origin of energy is an ever-increasing demand, associated with the growth of the corporate contracting market for green energy, and blockchain technology can facilitate this service considerably to clients in any part of the world.

“We are very pleased to take this first step along a route that will surely set the trend over the next few years,” said Linares.

FlexiDAO co-founder and CEO Simone Accornero said that the partnership is demonstrating that the traceability of renewable energy is now a viable proposition that generates real value for the consumer.

“Together with ACCIONA we want to be pioneers in showing that this blockchain-based system is commercially viable on a large scale,” Accornero said.