SolarCoin Rewards Solar Energy Users, Could Allow Users to Trade Unused Electricity
SolarCoin, an altcoin, rewards people for using solar energy. Created in January of 2014, the goal is to provide an incentive to increase solar electricity use globally over the next 40 years by rewarding the generators of solar electricity, according to the SolarCoin Foundation’s website.
SolarCoin works like air-miles for Solar electricity generation. It is claimed by people living in homes with solar energy panels or commercial solar electricity producers. One megawatt hour of energy can be redeemed for one SolarCoin.
The foundation maintains a public ledger of SolarCoins provided to solar electricity generators. The transactions are publicly visible on the SolarCoin blockchain.
Supply: 40 Years
SolarCoin’s supply is designed to last 40 years delivering incentives for generating 97,500 terawatt hours of solar electricity. The network grows as more people claim SolarCoin.
The foundation verifies a SolarCoin claim based on a meter reading, records its issuance in the public ledger and sends the coins to the claimant.
All transferred SolarCoins are publicly announced via a public ledger and can be monitored in the SolarCoin blockchain.
97.5 billion SolarCoins (99.4%) are stored in the foundation’s non-circulating generator pool account. These are exchanged for ongoing claimed “proof of work” of solar electricity generation submitted over 40 years.
33.7 million SolarCoins (0.1%) will be mined using proof of work. Mined SolarCoins represent unclaimed solar electricity.
Also read: Australians want to trade excess solar power on blockchain
Users Can Trade Energy
Since SolarCoin is issued on a public blockchain, the possibility exists for users to trade coins earned from generating electricity.
A homeowner could sell their generated solar energy to a neighbor in the form of digital tokens.
An Australian startup called PowerLedger is exploring ways to allow residents to trade excess solar energy to one another instead of selling it back to the power company, CCN.com reported in August.
The owner of a Belgian company called Smappee that installs solar panels believes homeowners can earn SolarCoins with unused electricity, according to Quartz . Stefan Grosjean said someone could install solar panels in a place with high “solar resource” potential, like Africa and get electricity deducted in a home in Belgium.
SolarCoin’s market cap as of Nov. 22 was $2,095,620 (2,797 BTC), according to coinmarketcap.com. The available supply is 34,723,926 SLR and the total supply is 98,034,029,773 SLR.
Images from Shutterstock and Solarcoin.
