Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, a developer of electricity and water projects in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, has announced that it will start using SolarCoin. As the company’s website states, this decision will mark “the first time a utility-scale company adopts the global reward program for solar electricity generation.”
Launched in 2014, SolarCoin is a cryptocurrency created to accelerate the transition to clean energy technology by incentivizing global solar electricity generation. Its supply has been designed to last 40 years delivering incentives for generating 97,500 TWh of solar electricity.
Like other cryptocurrencies such as BitCoin and Tether, SolarCoin is decentralized and independent of any government. It is an open community project run by volunteers working together as the SolarCoin Foundation, according to its website. But as reported by Arabian Business, unlike Bitcoin, “whose miners collectively use up 50 terawatt hours per year – more than Hong Kong or the countries of New Zealand and Peru – SolarCoin uses an ultra-low carbon blockchain technology called proof of stake time on its open-source ledger system”
According to a recent Reuter’s article, Saudi Arabia “aims to produce 10 percent of its power from renewable sources in the next six years as it pushes ahead with a multi-billion-dollar plan to diversify its energy mix and free up more crude oil for export.”
“We are always looking for ways to adopt new technologies to add value and reduce cost in all that we do and blockchain technology in our view offers a yet untapped opportunity for the power generation sector,” said Paddy Padmanathan, President and CEO of ACWA Power in a recent Forbes Middle East article.
“Now through SolarCoin, we are able to utilize blockchain technology in one way to create value to renewable energy generation. Being early utility-scale adopters of SolarCoin, ACWA Power is proud to leverage our rapidly growing solar energy generation capacity to accelerate the utilization of SolarCoins to in time further reduce the cost of solar energy through the supplementary value being created,” he continued.
“Awarding coins to solar energy producers such as ACWA Power provides an incentive to continue to invest in solar capacity. We hope to see further adoption of SolarCoin in the region, with the aim of building a strong community and spurring a global market for renewable energy investment,” said Nicholas Gogerty, founder of the SolarCoin Foundation.
