Residents on a Hackney housing estate have started trading renewable energy with each other, as part of a pilot blockchain programme.
The trade took place on the pioneering Hackney Banister House Estate, which has solar panels installed on 13 of the blocks of flats that make up the community.
The transaction saw 1kWh of energy being sent from an array of solar panels with excess energy on one of the block’s roofs, to a resident residing in another block within the estate.
The trade was achieved using smart hubs and a blockchain platform developed by Verv.
The aim of the pilot programme, currently underway in collaboration with Repowering London, is to enable residents to benefit from local renewable energy sources and bring down their energy bills, with a view to working towards creating a fully empowered, almost self-sustaining community.
Speaking of the trial, Roger who is a Banister House community member said: ‘Until now, we have been unable to take advantage of the solar panels on the roofs to power our homes due to the structure of the UK electricity market.
‘With the installation of Verv smart hubs, we are being empowered to generate, store and trade our own community energy and I’m really excited to see how this trial evolves! It’s safe to say energy costs are very high and it’s important, more now than ever, that solutions be sought.’
The reduction in energy bills is expected to be even more significant considering a lot of the residents are on pre-pay meters which are still one of the most expensive ways to pay for energy.
The chief executive and founder of Verv, Peter Davies explained: ‘We’re so pleased to be bringing the Verv renewable energy trading platform to life on Hackney’s Banister House Estate, we want to use this technology to empower the residents to innovate and create their own trading community.
‘We plan to use the results of this trial to roll out more energy trading communities across the UK and in turn globally.’
And the co-chief executive and co-Founder of Repowering London, Agamemnon Otero, added: ‘Over the past seven years we have built community energy in the UK; from the first inner city community energy projects on social housing to driving policy. The Shangri-La of community energy is to enable smart, easy, access to energy for its members. We are proud not only to be working on this but that we can place this leading technology trial into the urban homes and hearts of those most in need of it.’
The first trade follows the launch of Verv’s VLUX(VLX) token, created by the company in order to enable access to their blockchain-based trading system as it looks to accelerate its growth and take its platform to the next functional level.
The pre-sale for the VLUX Initial Token Offering is now open.