Trade your solar power with your neighbours: the promise of peer–to peer energy trading networks

Peer–to–peer energy trading networks, across which people can trade self–produced renewable energy, are generating much excitement and have been described as ‘game–changers’ to incumbent energy markets.  Among the numerous benefits for the so-called ‘prosumers’, actively trading energy in real time reduces the uncertainty associated with renewable energy generation and contributes to a sustainable balance of production and consumption of energy at a local scale.  In their recent publication Esther Mengelkamp and colleagues explore the Brooklyn Microgrid project, where the world’s first peer-to-peer energy trade facilitated by blockchain technology took place.