The Rising Importance of Blockchain: An Overview

Blockchain in the Energy Industry — Part 1

By 2025, the value of blockchain in the energy market will grow to over $3 billion from its 2018 value of $200 million, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50 percent. In fact, it may account for 10 percent of the global GDP by then. But why is blockchain becoming an indispensable tool in facing the energy industry’s challenges? We will endeavor to answer this question in this series on blockchain.

“Peer-to-peer energy trading projects allow small-scale energy producers to sell their generation directly to consumers without the intervention of electricity distributors.”

In the private sector, blockchain is set to grow over 45 percent. Peer-to-peer energy trading projects allow small-scale energy producers to sell their generation directly to consumers; they will create a new ecosystem with utilities that will supply clean, reliable and efficient energy at low cost; we will cover this in greater detail in a subsequent post.

“Blockchain is able to provide enhanced security due to the immutability of its nature.”

Another reason for blockchain growth in the energy market is rising security concerns of the electric grid. As more and more renewables-based distributed energy resources pop up and are integrated with the grid, the risk of security breaches rises proportionately. Blockchain is able to provide enhanced security due to the immutability of its nature, i.e., the data on a blockchain ledger cannot be manipulated, altered or intruded upon.

Oil and gas conglomerates have successfully utilized blockchain as well: they have optimized process efficiency, reduced overheads, and automated and digitized oilfield services.

Apart from individual consumers, small-scale producers, the electric grid and oil and gas firms, who else do you think blockchain can benefit in the energy industry?