Renewable energy has been a rapidly growing sector. Many governments around the world are becoming more and more environmentally aware, pushing for adaptation of renewable energy production. With over 90% of electrical needs met with renewable electricity, Germany and Norway are just a couple of countries that set the example. Power Ledger is a peer-to-peer blockchain solution that allows participants to buy and sell generated energy in a transparent, automated environment.
The Power Ledger ICO sold a little over $13 000 000 worth of tokens in just under a month. It was one of the few ICOs that had a proof-of-concept ready at the time of the crowdsale, meaning that it was not just a whitepaper project.
The xGrid allows users to buy renewable electricity even if they do not have the means to produce it themselves. It provides an instant low-cost settlement in a trust-free, secure ecosystem, allowing individuals that generate more than they consume to capitalize on their excess energy. It has a low-cost payment system, perfect for any regular household, office or retailer that is connected to the electricity grid.
The μGrid is perfect for any electricity consumers within an energy micro grid, like building or complex-owners, strata managers and shopping centres. It also aims to break the connection between energy generation and energy consumption by allowing revenue to generated from solar panels, batteries and other renewable energy assets even if the investor is not present.
Power Port is a product oriented towards electric vehicle charging stations. It allows electric car owners to choose and pick the source of energy they want, providing an instant, convenient payment method. It also works well for charging station owners as it allows for optimal management and metering, as well as the fact that it is easily integrated with already established systems.
While the problems with the Power Ledger ecosystem itself are very negligible, few issues still stand. First off, governments with centralized energy production may want to tax peer-to-peer energy transactions, as it will severely undercut established energy prices. Also, being on the Ethereum blockchain, like many other utility tokens, the problem of scaling still stands. So far, the company has not come up with an announcement of working on their own protocol.
Power Ledger is definitely one of the more well established crypto projects. The ecosystem has a very knowledgeable team with a solid background in renewable energy. The project has been named a winner in the 2018 Extreme Tech Challenge so their legitimacy is pretty much set in stone. Things definitely look good for Power Ledger and we’re certain we’ll hear more about them in the future.
Power Port
A class of Platform Application whereby virtual pipeline and roadside assistance type assets may be automated via the platform, such as EVs, and can provide a mobile storage discharge facility maintaining energy supplies to predominantly self-sufficient energy consumers.
Carbon Trading
This Platform Application class offers smart contracts for carbon traders to assure digital transactions across organizations: credibility of asset using immutable distributed ledger technology; and transparency and auditability. It supports reporting and surrendering of carbon credits or certificates to regulatory authorities.
This Platform Application class offers rapid low-cost and transparent dispatch optimization and management, data aggregation, reconciliation, and settlement for wholesale energy marketplaces.
This Platform Application provides optimized metering data, the collection of big data, right to access and dispatch of assets, rapid transaction settlement, network load balancing, frequency management, demand side response, and demand side and load management. The optimization of network assets is made viable by the near real-time remuneration of asset owners
Neo-retailer
This class of Platform Application provides Neo-retailers with smart demand and supply management, along with almost instantaneous remuneration and payment settlements while managing consumer exposure to the risk of nonsupply.
Microgrid
This type of Platform Application enables electricity metering, big data acquisition, rapid micro-transactions, and grid management at an unprecedented granular scale. Trading in embedded networks breaks the nexus between generation ownership and energy consumption, meaning value can be derived from an investment in DER even if the investor is absent or doesn’t consume all the energy they generate.
This class of Platform Application gives retailers the ability to empower consumers (or in an unregulated environment, the consumers themselves) to simply trade electricity with one another and receive payment in real-time from an automated and trustless reconciliation and settlement system. There are many other immediate benefits such as being able to select a clean energy source, trade with neighbors, receive more money for excess power, benefit from transparency of all your trades on a blockchain, and very low-cost settlement costs, all leading to lower power bills and improved returns for investments in distributed renewables.
The Power Ledger Platform (Platform) is a trustless, transparent and interoperable energy trading platform that supports an ever-expanding suite of energy applications, with an exchangeable frictionless energy trading token, Sparkz. The Power Ledger Token (POWRTM) is the fuel of the Power Ledger Ecosystem with bespoke private trading applications creating Sparkz in exchange for POWRs. Sparkz are currently purchased and redeemed using fiat currencies with individual trading platforms hosting closed-loop exchanges for energy and Sparkz. Energy trading applications are not just conceptual, they are proven and deployed in communities and energy markets around the world including Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia.
xGrid
The xGrid allows users to buy renewable electricity even if they do not have the means to produce it themselves. It provides an instant low-cost settlement in a trust-free, secure ecosystem, allowing individuals that generate more than they consume to capitalize on their excess energy. It has a low-cost payment system, perfect for any regular household, office or retailer that is connected to the electricity grid.
μGrid
The μGrid is perfect for any electricity consumers within an energy micro grid, like building or complex-owners, strata managers and shopping centres. It also aims to break the connection between energy generation and energy consumption by allowing revenue to generated from solar panels, batteries and other renewable energy assets even if the investor is not present.
Power Ports
Power Port is a product oriented towards electric vehicle charging stations. It allows electric car owners to choose and pick the source of energy they want, providing an instant, convenient payment method. It also works well for charging station owners as it allows for optimal management and metering, as well as the fact that it is easily integrated with already established systems.
Since POWR is an ERC-20 based token, it can be stored both on the Ledger and Trezor.
Ledger
As for using the Nano Ledger S, the first step towards setting up your device is unboxing you device and checking if you have received all the accessories with the device. Once you have unboxed your device, you need to configure it and initialize it before being able to use it. The process is quite simple and will hardly take about 20-30 minutes post which you will be set to use your Ledger Nano S device. This video does a pretty good job at explaining how the setup works.
Trezor
As for Trezor, installing is really simple. To properly install it users should attach the unit to the computer. After that continue with installing the bridge which allows the Trezor to join with the computer. The first step is to connect the Trezor to device’s USB slot with the cable given in the box. After that, go to myTrezor.com and proceed with installing the browser extension. Trezor can also be used on Android or an iPhone, or on a Windows or Mac computer. Now, initiate the extension and myTrezor will direct you to pick a PIN. After this, you will notice nine buttons but the numbers are hidden. After this, users should check the Trezor’s screen to recognize which numbers are in which place because it switches every time. Now set the PIN. Shortly after, Trezor should present a 24-word wallet “seed”. In short, one word at a time. Note down this seed and save it carefully. If your Trezor device malfunctions or is lost, you can utilize the seed to reconstruct the complete wallet. This video explains how to set up your trezor quite well.
POWR is based on the Ethereum ERC-20 standard which means that all ERC-20 supporting wallets can house your POWR. For an online-based wallet, we recommend MyEtherWallet. The wallet offers a brilliant combination of speed, trustworthiness and simplicity, making it the most popular online wallet for ether and any ERC20-based tokens.
MyEtherWallet
Simply visit myetherwallet.com and set up your wallet with a method of your choosing, just make sure to store your private key somewhere safe. It's wise to have it written down on paper in case your PC/notebook malfunctions.
The only downside to using an online wallet like MEW is that there are literally hundreds of phishing scams out there to get your eth, so you better double check the address everytime and make sure to watch out for any malicious activity on your browser or PC.
Exodus
First, we have Exodus, which supports a ton of other cryptocurrencies along with POWR and is pretty straightforward and easy to use. Just download the app from the official site(exodus.io) and get straight into creating your wallet. Exodus stores your Private Keys on the machine you choose and not on any server, providing you with a relative peace of mind when it comes to the security of your coins.
Atomic Wallet
Another option is Atomic Wallet.
Atomic Wallet is a desktop wallet built with security, anonymity and decentralization in mind. Atomic Wallet was designed to leverage the potential of atomic swaps and become part of a fully-fledged decentralized cryptocurrency ecosystem. The “physical” wallet itself is a PC application that can be downloaded onto your computer. Your private keys and other data will then be stored on your PC in an encrypted form.
This means you hold your own keys, which are encrypted and kept only on your own device, control your own funds and can efficiently swap tokens without needing to go through a centralized exchange. This application then interacts with the blockchains of supported coins. For example, if you check your transaction history in the program, it looks it up on the blockchain and then shows it to you, rather than storing this potentially sensitive information somewhere.
