Blockchain Technology in the Energy Sector: A Systematic Review of Challenges & Opportunities

Blockchains have attracted considerable interest and are reported as a promising technology that could deliver significant benefits and innovation in the energy sector. The webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of fundamental principles that underpin blockchain technologies, such as system architectures and distributed consensus algorithms. Next, we provide an overview of blockchain solutions and business cases in the energy industry. This summarises the results of a comprehensive review of the potential of blockchain technology in the energy industry, which the presenters completed for the National Research Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) in the UK. Our review included 140 blockchain initiatives (both research projects and start-ups), which are systematically classified into different groups according to their field of activity, implementation platform and consensus strategy used. Opportunities, best practices and challenges encountered will be discussed for a number of applications, ranging from emerging peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading and Internet of Things (IoT), to automation of decentralised marketplaces, EV charging and e-mobility. The webinar concludes with a discussion of challenges and market barriers the technology needs to overcome for mainstream adoption.