Can the blockchain help accelerate the energy transition in France and in Europe

Master 2 Digital Marketing 2016

Executive summary 3

Introduction 5

1. THE TRANSITION TO A LOW CARBON/NUKE ECONOMY IN EUROPE AND IN FRANCE 7

The energy market is rapidly evolving due to the development of renewable energies 7

2. WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY? 10 2.1 Définition 10 2.2 How does a blockchain work? 11 2.3 How the blockchain works in detail? 14

The proof-of-work and proof-of-stake concepts 15 What are tokens? 16 Smart contracts 17

3. HOW COULD BLOCKCHAIN HELP OUR COUNTRIES TRANSITION TO A LOW-CARBON/LOWER NUCLEAR-POWERED ECONOMY? 17

3.1 Blockchain could facilitate the adoption (hence the development) of renewable energies 17

Encouraging prosumers to adopt and invest in renewable energies at home 18 Reducing frictions attached to current political incentives to the renewable energies 21 Helping Distribution system operators manage the smart grid... 22

3.2 Blockchain could help the transport industry migrating from fossil fuels to electricity 26

Facilitating charging of Electric vehicles: slock.it project 26 3.3 Blockchain could help reduce the energy consumption 27

4. What are the risks about the blockchain today? 28 4.1 High energy intensity required by the verification process 28 4.2 Security risks 29 4.3 Impact on the energy bill for the consumer 29 4.4 Regulatory limitations 30

5. Conclusion 30

6. Annexes 33

Nom Vincent Poizat 1/41 Mémoire Master 2 - Digital Marketing 2016

Annex 1: Ordonnance n° 2016-1019 du 27 juillet 2016 relative à l’autoconsommation d’électricité 33

Annex 2: The proof-of-concept method 36

Sources 38

Thanks 40


Executive summary Renewable energies gain an increasing market share of the energy market in Europe and in France. This is mostly due to 2 factors:

- a political decision to decarbonise the economy in order to fight against climate change. This decision was reinforced by the Paris agreement in 2015 during the COP21

- a sharp decrease of the production cost for the 2 major sources of renewable energy: wind and solar-energy.

This has strong consequences on the energy market. First this has led to the development of small, local producers and the emergence of the so-called prosumers: a productor that self-consume partially or totally his production. This is typically the 6 kwc installation of solar panels on the roof of an individual housing. This multitude of small-size productors leads to an increasing decentralisation of an energy market that was mostly organised along big central sources of power. This is especially true in France where 58 nuclear power plants produce 75% of the total electrical production. At the same time the blockchain technology has matured from a crypto-currency only (i. the bitcoin) to a technology that could possibly enter other markets. Don Tapscott summarizes the blockchain technology, as the biggest innovation in computer science—the idea of a distributed database where trust is established through mass collaboration and clever code rather than through a powerful institution that does the authentication and the settlement. With the introduction of smart contract by the Ethereum blockchain, self-enforcing contracts on the blockchain could provide an auditable, non-repudiable and cryptographically secure history of automated transactions, therefore possibly rendering other services than simply exchanging money. Many have compared the blockchain to internet. For Joiichi Ito, the blockchain “works the opposite to internet. It makes information looks like a thing. It creates the scarcity you could not do on the internet.” Joiichi Ito considers that the energy market fits particularly well with the blockchain technology. “Energy is the only other thing that has scarcity and goes over a wire. There is a one to one match between energy and blockchain. If I share my music with you over the internet I still have it. Once I give you my energy over the blockchain I don’t have it anymore.”


The blockchain technology is still in its early stages and there are numerous uncertainties about its full acceptance in the market: transaction costs attached to the blockchain, security risks and regulatory hurdles. Should these issues be lifted, the blockchain could help the energy transition from a carbon-rich, centralised system to a decentralised and then distributed energy system based primarily on renewable energies. It could first facilitate the adoption of renewable energies by local prosumers by facilitating local transactions of small value, reducing frictions attached with political intrusion into the market or by facilitating charging of electric vehicles. Balancing supply and demand is also a challenge met by smart grids and one which could be addressed by the blockchain. Finally and perhaps more importantly the blockchain could help people manage their own energy consumption which they hardly do now, lifting the ultimate barrier to massive energy savings, a key to a successful energy transition.


Introduction “The European Union turned climate ambition into climate action. The Paris Agreement is the first of its kind and it would not have been possible were it not for the European Union. Today we continued to show leadership and prove that, together, the European Union can deliver. “

Jean-Claude Juncker, on the EU ratification of the Paris Agreement, 4 October 2016 On 4 october 2016, the European union ratified the Paris Agreement of the COP21 that set ambitious environmental goals for the world countries in order to remain under the threshold of +2% for global warming. To be effective the Paris Agreement required that 55 countries ratified it representing more than 55% of the total amount of the global greenhouse gas emissions. The EU ratification took us across the emissions threshold, triggering the Paris agreement. The EU has set ambitious goals for greenhouse gas reductions: -40% in 2030 (compared to 1990) and -80% by 2050. One key factor to meet this target is by developing low-carbon renewable energies like windmill and solar energy. Besides its climate upside, clean energy is seen by the EU as the growth of tomorrow.

In France the law for the energy transition and the green economy (Loi pour la transition énergétique et la croissance verte) voted in 2015 set ambitious goals for the development of renewable energies and forecast to reduce significantly the share of nuclear power in the electricity production by 2030. The development of renewable energies will have tremendous implications on the energy market. The single most important one is a massive decentralisation of


energy production … and consumption. A new economic actor has indeed appeared that will take a growing space in the energy market: the prosumer of energy, an economic actor that both produces and consumes energy. In this context the concept of blockchain has emerged recently and is gathering a considerable amount of interest from both researchers and corporations. The blockchain has evolved from its origin as a crypto-currency and some researchers have lately come to discuss that it may be a mature technology ready to enter the energy field and possibly disrupt it .. for the better. Today blockchain technologies could: - help increase the adoption of renewable energies in the building and the transport industry. - help manage the smart grids which will be necessarily built in order to manage the input of renewable energy supply. - help reduce the energy consumption Finally we shall review the limits existing today to a full scale deployment of the blockchain technologies in the energy market:

- regulatory barriers - consumer acceptance to such a decentralised way of managing energy - Energy intensity required by the consensus protocol - Impact on the energy bill for the consumer


1. THE TRANSITION TO A LOW CARBON/NUKE ECONOMY IN EUROPE AND IN FRANCE In October 2014 the European Council agreed on the 2030 climate and energy policy framework for the EU setting an ambitious economy-wide domestic target of at least 40% greenhouse gas emission reduction for 2030. The Paris Agreement in 2015 vindicates the EU's approach. Implementing the 2030 energy and climate framework as agreed by the European Council is a priority in follow up to the Paris Agreement.

The European Union is aiming for an 80 % reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 compared with 1990 levels and while renewable technologies will play a vital role in achieving this, they will also require a major overhaul of how energy is distributed.

One way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 is to replace coal and gas-fuelled power with energy from renewable sources such as the wind and the sun.

In France the law for the energy transition and the green growth was voted in 2015. It set 5 ambitious goals:

- Reduce the final energy consumption in France by 20% between 2012 and 2030 and by 50% in 2050.

- Reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas by 40% in 2030 (compared with 1990) and by 75% in 2050.

- Reduce the share of nuclear power in the electricity production from 74% of total electric power in 2012 to 50% in 2025

- Reduce the total consumption of fossil energies by 30% between 2012 and 2030

- Increase the share of renewable energies in the final energy consumption from 14% in 2012 to 32% in 2030.

The energy market is rapidly evolving due to the development of renewable energies In a conference given in February 2016 at MIT, Scott Clavena, CEO of Greentech media, shows how the energy market is rapidly evolving from a centralised structure:


Source: EPRI To an increasingly decentralised & distributed energy network:

Source: EPRI


One of the key concept that appears in the new energy market is the notion of prosumers. Office buildings, private homes are increasingly becoming energy producers thanks to the reducing costs of solar and windmill energy.

Cost of energies Source: Bloomberg Finally let us examine how this new energy production/distribution model would translate at the individual place of a home-owner.

Source: GTM research


It appears on these graphics that what causes the energy market to evolve dramatically is the development of renewable energies adding capacities on a very decentralised manner. The energy transition is not only a matter of switching energy sources from fossil/nuclear to renewables, it transforms the market from a centralised one with producers on one side and consumers on the other to a decentralised one where energy consumers could increasingly be energy producers.

Already, in Belgium, somewhere between 8 % and 12 % of households have become prosumers, says Dr Mihail Mihaylov at the AI lab of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

What would happen if these numbers of prosumers increased, including the scenario whereby 50 % of households became prosumers, i.e energy producers and consumers at the same time. Under the current system a lot of green energy would be wasted.

2. WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY? 2.1 Définition

Blockchain is a technology that enables so-called “peer-to-peer” transactions. With this type of transaction, every participant in a network can transact directly with every other network participant without involving a third-party intermediary.

The blockchain innovation is that transactions are no longer stored in a central database, but distributed to all participating computers, which store the data locally.

The first relevant blockchain application was Bitcoin, a so-called “cryptocurrency”. Over recent years, Bitcoin has become the basis for other blockchain applications, most of which are currently being developed in finance. A number of businesses and initiatives have recently been launched that apply the blockchain principle.

Essentially, a blockchain is a digital contract permitting an individual party to conduct and bill a transaction (e.g. a sale of electricity) directly (peer-to-peer) with another party. The peer-to-peer concept means that all transactions are stored on a network of computers consisting of the computers of the provider and customer participating in a transaction, as well as of the computers of many other network participants.


Traditional intermediaries, e.g. a bank, are no longer required under this model, as the other participants in the network act as witnesses to each transaction carried out between a provider and a customer, and as such can afterwards also provide confirmation of the details of a transaction, because all relevant information is distributed to the network and stored locally.

How blockchains change the way we transact Source: Blockchain – an opportunity for energy producers and consumers? PWC

2.2 How does a blockchain work?

Where a provider and a customer agree to enter into a transaction, they determine the variables of this transaction by specifying the recipient, the sender and the size of the transaction, among other things. All information relating to an individual transaction is then combined with the details of other transactions made during the same period to create a new block of data. This is comparable to sending emails,


which are also split into separate data blocks. Blockchains are different in that this process relates to a single standardised transaction.

The blockchain process Source: Blockchain – an opportunity for energy producers and consumers? PWC

Each transaction is encrypted and distributed to many individual computers (peer-to-peer), each of which stores the data locally. The members of the network automatically confirm (verify) the transactions stored on the individual computers.


Source: https://theconversation.com/how-blockchain-will-transform-our-cities-69561

The data stored in a block is verified using algorithms, which attach a unique hash (1) to each block. Each such hash is a series of numbers and letters created on the basis of the information stored in the relevant data block. If any piece of information relating to any transaction is subsequently changed as a result of tampering or due to transmission errors, e.g. the exact amount of the transaction, the algorithm run on the changed block will no longer produce the correct hash and will therefore report an error.

All number/letter combinations are continuously checked for correctness and the individual data blocks are combined to form a chain of individual data blocks – the blockchain. Due to the interlinking of these number/letter combinations, the information stored on the blockchain cannot be tampered with (at least this would

(1) An algorithm that turns a variable amount of text into a small, fixed-length value called a "hashvalue" or "hash code." Hash functions are widely used to create codes for message authentication.


require a great deal of effort). This continuous verification process (called “mining”) is performed by the members of the blockchain, who are rewarded for this service according to the computing power they contribute.

The verification process ensures that all members can add to the blockchain but no subsequent revisions are possible. This enables direct, peer-to- peer transactions between persons or organisations that used to require the services of an intermediary in order for their transactions to be legitimately recorded. For example, while a bank is currently needed as an intermediary to effect a financial transaction between two parties, the same transaction can be executed and documented directly between the two parties if a blockchain is used.

The verification process Source: Blockchain – an opportunity for energy producers and consumers? PWC

2.3 How the blockchain works in detail?

Each blockchain is essentially a so-called “DApp” (decentralised application) operating on the basis of a peer-to-peer protocol and coming with the special feature that it provides distributed storage functionality for storing transaction data. DApps are open-source applications which represent a contract between a network and its users and which run on a distributed register (the so-called “ledger”), such as the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchains. What makes this type of application special is that no single organisation controls these contracts or holds a legal claim over them, but that all decisions (e.g. on protocol adaptations) are taken by consensus between the users on the basis of computer code.


In order for an application to qualify as a genuine decentralised application, both its protocol and data must be stored on a public, decentralised blockchain (to avoid a central point of failure) and validated using a decentralised verification mechanism (e.g. “proof of work”). Properly decentralised applications ensure that a reliable record can be kept of all transactions and business deals, even in the event that key websites and interfaces go offline. Also, no one can subsequently revise or erase the ledger. DApps can be classified as follows:

● Type 1: decentralised applications that have their own blockchain Examples:Bitcoin, Altcoin,Litecoin

● Type 2: decentralised applications that use the blockchain of a type 1 DApp Example: OmniProtocol (a software layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain)

● Type2 DApps are protocols and use their own tokens ● Type 3: decentralised applications that use the blockchain of a type 2 DApp

Example:the SAFE Network,which uses the Omni Protocol to issue “safecoin” tokens.

The proof-of-work and proof-of-stake concepts The purpose of the verification process is to achieve consensus on the content of the distributed ledger. Consensus-based verification is a decentralised (i.e. embedded on the blockchain itself) and automated process. The following two mechanisms are most commonly used to establish consensus. But there can be other verification process, like the proof of concept (see annex 1). Proof-of-Work The proof-of-work concept is the consensus mechanism most frequently used in conjunction with blockchain technology, and relies on so-called “miners”. Each block is verified through mining before its information is stored. The data contained in each block is verified using algorithms which attach a unique hash to each block based on the information stored in it.

Hash algorithms are used to convert data of an arbitrary length to a fixed length, thereby creating a hash. The hash value represents a checksum which is used to encrypt a message of variable size using a hash function. No two encrypted messages may be based on the same hash value, nor will the hash value provide any clues as to the message content.

These hashes can be either ordinary hashes or cryptographic hashes. The complexity of this task lies in finding a specific hash corresponding to the block’s content. The level of complexity (difficulty) adjusts flexibly in response to the computing power available on the miners’ network, so as to ensure that new blocks can be hashed at predefined intervals (Bitcoin: 10 minutes, Ethereum: 10 seconds).


Even if only a single piece of information relating to any transaction is subsequently changed, for example if the amount of a transaction is altered as a result of tampering or due to transmission errors,the algorithm applied to the block will no longer produce the correct hash. The hashes computed for the same block, which was stored many times around the decentralised network as described above, are compared so that changed blocks can be identified and declared invalid. The verified, correct version of a block is identified by the majority of participating computers and added to the other blocks previously verified, thereby extending the blockchain. Once the block which contains the initial transaction is added to the blockchain and this addition has been stored by a sufficient number of network participants, the transaction is confirmed to both parties. The mining process can also be used to take decisions on changes to a DApp. Decisions made in accordance with the proof-of-work principle are taken on the basis of the amount of work the individual stakeholders have performed to verify a block. Proof-of-stake The proof-of-stake approach simplifies the mining process where a large number of tokens need to be verified. While under the proof-of-work principle, a large group of distributed users are continuously verifying the hashes of transactions through the mining process in order to update the current status of the blockchain assets, the proof-of-stake concept requires users to repeatedly prove ownership of their own share (“stake”) in the underlying currency. Where the proof-of-stake method is used, the work required to carry out the verification process is allocated between the individual members based on their stake in percent. For example, if a user owns a 10% share of the total outstanding blockchain assets, the user will have to carry out 10% of the required mining activity. This approach reduces the complexity of the decentralised verification process and can thus deliver large savings on energy and operating costs.

What are tokens? The term “token” may refer to several things: a token can be used to grant users access to a (de-)centralised computer application, act as a key for the execution of digital transactions or represent a currency unit (e.g. bitcoins). DApp tokens must be generated and distributed according to a standard algorithm or set of criteria. Tokens constitute the basis for using an application, and are also a reward for contributions by users. Yet tokens do not represent any assets, nor do they give rights to dividends or equity shares. Although the value of a DApp token may increase or decrease over time, it would be a misconception to think of them as a type of security. What mechanisms are used to distribute tokens? There are three general mechanisms DApps (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum) can use to distribute their tokens (e.g. bitcoins, ethers): mining, fundraising and development


• Mining: tokens are distributed as a reward to those participants who solve certain verification operations most quickly (with consensus being established by proof of work). Bitcoin is one example of a DApp issuing its tokens through mining. Fundraising: tokens are distributed to those who funded the initial development of the DApp. Development: tokens are generated using a predefined mechanism and are available for the future development of the DApp (with consensus being established by proof of stake).

Smart contracts The Ethereum blockchain was created in 2011 by Vitalik Buterin, a russian developer. It created the concept of smart contracts in a blockchain. Smart contracts are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of some sort of agreement (e.g. a legal contract emulating the logic of contractual clauses or a financial contract specifying responsibilities of the counterparts and automated flows of value). Smart contracts usually have a user interface that can be implemented as web page, an application, or a mobile app. Thus traditional contracts could become outdated for the purposes of certain transactions. Rather than drafting a costly, lengthy contract employing attorneys, banks and notaries contracts might be created with a few lines of code, perhaps constructed automatically by wiring together a handful of human readable clauses. It would for example be possible to create a fully automated smart contract between an energy producer and a consumer that autonomously and securely regulates both supply and payment. If the customer were to fail to make payment, the smart contract would automatically arrange for the power supply to be suspended until payment has been received, provided the parties had previously agreed to include such a mechanism in their contract.


3. HOW COULD BLOCKCHAIN HELP OUR COUNTRIES TRANSITION TO A LOW-CARBON/LOWER NUCLEAR-POWERED ECONOMY?

3.1 Blockchain could facilitate the adoption (hence the development) of renewable energies

The European Union and the French government have set ambitious goals for developing renewable energies. The blockchain technology could help accelerate the adoption of renewable energies in critical economic sectors like the home building industry and the personal transport industry.

Encouraging prosumers to adopt and invest in renewable energies at home

- by facilitating the buying and selling of decentralised energy: An experimental energy microgrid in Brooklyn, New York, shows how energy-generating homes can become part of a peer-to-peer electricity system and shows how the blockchain technology can help this electricity system work. Here is the idea: “On one side of President Street, five homes with solar panels generate electricity. On the other side, five homes buy power when the opposite homes don't need it. In the middle is a blockchain network, managing and recording transactions with little human interaction.”


Brooklyn micro-grid projet Source: Blockchain – an opportunity for energy producers and consumers? PWC

The project, called TransActive Grid, is a joint venture between Brooklyn Microgrid developer LO3 Energy and blockchain technology developer ConsenSys, a startup focused on Ethereum applications. TransActive Grid includes a hardware layer of smart meters and a software layer using the blockchain and smart contracts ‒ self-enforcing contracts on the Ethereum blockchain which provide an auditable, non-repudiable and cryptographically secure history of automated transactions. The participants’ homes are equipped with smart meters linked to the blockchain to track the electricity generated and used in the homes and manage transactions between neighbors.


http://transactivegrid.net/

http://lo3energy.com/

https://consensys.net/

Source: Fox news, going solar on the City The energy meter data from the participants within the microgrid becomes an oracle that feeds into Consensys’ token issuance and management system to create tokens representing the electricity surplus generated by the prosumers’ solar arrays. The tokens, which indicate that a certain amount of energy was produced from a renewable energy source, can be transacted on the blockchain and transferred from one smart meter wallet to another. Blockchain technology permits developing sophisticated data networks for efficient, self-executing community management of energy networks. Confluence project with Bouygues Immobilier in Lyon Bouygues Immobilier, a leading real estate company in France, has partnered with 2 French start-ups, Stratumn and Energisme, to build the first local energy network in France powered by blockchain technology. The project consists in building a decentralized local network of supervision of the exchanges of energy in the city of Lyon. The district of Lyon Confluence, housing a Demonstrator of the Institute of the Sustainable City (IVD), is the site chosen to deploy this technology enabling prosumers of solar energy to follow directly and locally their energy exchanges. A demonstrator of this solution was introduced at the Blockchain Hackademy organized during the Microsoft experiments held on October 4 and 5, 2016 at the Palais des Congrès in the presence of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Inc. Nicolas Gaume, Director of the Developer eXperience division at Microsoft France explains: « we are glad that this demonstrator has been developed and deployed quickly thanks to Azure's "Blockchain as a Service" platform.” “Microsoft was instrumental in sourcing the start-ups we needed to implement our idea” said Olivier Sellès, the project director in the department of innovation at Bouygues Immobilier. This project was made possible after the promulgation in July 2016 of a government order allowing self-consumption of energy produced by local, decentralised producers (see the full order in annex 2). Mr Sellès explains that Bouygues Immobilier is well ahead of the regulation as far as energy in office buildings is concerned. All new office buildings built nowadays by Bouygues Immobilier are net energy producers (BePos buildings, positive energy building), thanks mostly to photovoltaic panels installed on all new projects. Bouygues Immobilier’s customers for their office building division are institutional investors (insurance companies..) which invest long term funds. They expect therefore that the buildings they acquire will keep its value when they divest it in 20-odd years.


Individual investors do not have this long term vision when they acquire a flat or a house. Hence the slow adoption of BePos apartments by individual buyers. Bouygues Immobilier’s challenge is to increase “perceived value for renewable energies” in order to promote BePos buildings towards family or individual buyers: What is it to live in a positive energy building? How to live with a reduced energetic print? Mr Selles argues that the blockchain technology will allow to build use-cases that will demonstrate the value of renewable energy to the building’s inhabitants. What form theses use-cases will take (mobile app, web portal...) remains to be seen. It is to the people to define what they could expect from the technology. Mr Sellès will run focus groups with the building inhabitants along the year and expects first outcomes at the end of this year. To implement this project Bouygues Immobilier works with Stratumn, a French startup dedicated to blockchain technology. Stratumn will design, develop and implement the technology behind the concept worked out by Bouygues Immobilier. Stratumn works with the Tendermint blockchain and its proof-of-process consensus method (see annex 1). The project will unfold in 3 parts:

1) Proof of concept The proof-of-concept built during the Microsoft Experiments in oct 2016 has validated the methodology and the capacity to acquire data about production of PV electricity on one side and consumption of this PV electricity by different consumers on the other. The POC showed that it was possible to build a database with data certified, auditable and reliable.

2) Deployment in the Confluence building In the Bouygues project in Lyon, Stratumn will set up a smart meter at the exit of the solar installation to measure electricity production. It will then set up a smart meter at the entrance of each apartment of the buiding to measure the electricity consumption. All smart meters will work as oracles for the blockchain that will measure electricity output and input.

3) Deployment of a market place

Ultimately if the project is successful Stratumn’s technology will serve as a market place for various buildings where each building’s blockchain will plug and organise the exchange of energy and data between the buildings.

Reducing frictions attached to current political incentives to the renewable energies A new currency to incentivize prosumers The biggest disincentive to getting solar panels today is that regulatory conditions in the market might change suddenly for political reasons. In France for instance the Fillon government has abruptly reduced the purchase price of electricity generated by these photovoltaic installations by EDF: -30% in January


2010 and -12% in September 2010. It even decided a moratorium on all photovoltaic projects in december 2010. Consequences were painful: according to the Renewable energy corporate union, ⅓ of the jobs in the industry were lost in France during 2011. . A group of researchers from the Free University of Bruxelles led by Mihail Maihaylov have introduced the concept of NRGcoin – a decentralized digital currency for renewable energy, based on Blockchain technology. The NRGcoin concept is visualized in the figure below. When a prosumer generates energy and injects it in the grid she receives information from the grid operator on the balance of supply and demand in the micro-grid (or district). This information is then

source: Boosting the Renewable Energy Economy with NRGcoin used by the smart meter at that agent’s home to securely create (also issue, or “mint”), new digital units (or NRGcoins) for that prosumer. For every 1 kWh of renewable energy that the prosumer injects in the grid, her smart meter creates 1 NRGcoin. At any time, the prosumer can offer to sell her coins on the NRGcoin currency market – a FOREX-type currency exchange. Consumers join the NRGcoin market and buy NRGcoins using fiat currency, e.g. Euro, Dollar, Pound, etc. When consumers use green energy from the grid their smart meter automatically pays for that consumption using NRGcoins, instead of traditional currency. All digital transactions of NRGcoins, including their creation, are governed by the decentralized NRGcoin protocol – a piece of software running on the peer-to-peer network of smart meters. This protocol is based on the Ethereum Blockchain technology. Thus the NRGcoin concept offers a number of benefits in the smart grid: It works as a subsidy scheme for renewable installations with lower risk against policy change for prosumers. The issuance of the currency is governed by a decentralized protocol that can only be changed by a majority vote and thus not by individual market actors. The NRGCoin offers a mechanism that reduces the need for government support schemes, since prosumers are generating their own money, thus saving on budget.


"NRGcoin gives you protection against policy change because now the payment is built into the protocol, which is decentralized. One kilowatt-hour always equals one NRGcoin—nobody can change it". Dr Mihailov argues. Facilitating the certification process Potential future area of application is to use blockchains for the purpose of documenting ownership and related transactions, i.e by providing secure storage of ownership records. The possibility of storing all transaction data in a tamper-proof and decentralised way opens up great opportunities in the field of energy certification. Two applications come foremost to mind: the first is in the verification of renewable electricity and of emission allowances (emissions trading). The ownership history of each certificate could be recorded exactly on the blockchain. This would provide a tamper-proof and transparent way of managing certificates for renewable power and emission allowances. Another use case, which is related to the Internet of Things, is to set up a blockchain-based register that records and regulates the ownership and current state (asset management) of assets such as smart meters, networks and generation facilities (e.g. solar systems).

Helping Distribution system operators manage the smart grid... Smart electrical grids will have a daunting task integrating a growing network of small, decentralised electrical power plants, producing intermittent solar or wind energy. There are nonetheless a lot of potential advantages in a blockchain-based micro-grid, as opposed to simply selling excess electricity back to a local utility. First, you don't have to bring in so much power over long distances, which minimizes losses. Second, it means more resilience: micro-grids can be isolated from the larger grid during storms, ensuring some power remains available. Securing the origin and validity of the metadata exchanged about energy Blockchain can indeed help deliver this promise in a key aspect of the contract between prosumers and distribution system operators: securing the validity of data. In a conference about blockchain and energy given in January 2017 in Total building in Paris, Sébastien Couture, director of Community Relations at Stratumn, explains how Stratumn blockchain technology will secure the data attached to production and consumption of energy and help set-up trustless exchanges within the smartgrid. The POC developed with Bouygues Immobilier and Energisme smart counter has proven that Stratumn blockchain technology could supply a tamper-proof data about production & consumption of energy. THis entails that smart contracts could be set-up not only within a local blockchain but in-between other local trustless blockchains, i.e with another building from another real estate company for instance. Nom Vincent Poizat 23/41 Mémoire Master 2 - Digital Marketing 2016

Balancing supply and demand on the network Blockchain technology makes it possible for energy networks to be controlled through smart contracts. Smart contracts would signal to the system when to initiate what transactions. This would be based on predefined rules designed to ensure that all energy and storage flows are controlled automatically so as to balance supply and demand. For example, whenever more energy is generated than needed, smart contracts could be used to ensure that this excess energy is delivered into storage automatically. Conversely, the energy held in storage could be deployed for use whenever the generated energy output is insufficient. In this way, blockchain technology could directly control network flows and storage facilities. Smart contracts could also be used to manage balancing activities and virtual power plants. NRGcoin mechanism as a digital currency could also act as a balancing factor in the smart grid. Since the rates at which substations pay prosumers depend on local supply and demand, different prosumers may earn different number of NRGcoins for the same amount of injected energy at different locations of the smart grid. Again, these rates are independent from the current market value of the NRGcoins. The difference in the rates is related to the balance of local energy production and consumption that the DSO strives to achieve, as well as for flattening supply and demand peaks. For example, the value of generated energy in a neighborhood full of producers will be much lower than the NRGcoins that a single producer will earn in a neighborhood full of consumers. Thus, the value difference imposed may stimulate consumers to install renewable energy generators and become producers, while at the same time discourage excess production or consumption that overload the transmission lines. Similarly, consumers are motivated to shift their consumption away from demand peaks and towards production peaks, as that will lower their energy bill. The more energy supply matches demand, the more NRGcoins producers receive from the substation and the fewer coins are paid by consumers to the substation, as the additional energy it needs to supply to that neighborhood is low. In this way agents strive to balance supply and demand, i.e. achieve demand response, out of their own self-interest. Prosumers are motivated to feed just enough renewable energy to the grid, while consumers minimize their costs by shifting their consumption pattern towards time slots of higher production. Helping transform the energy distribution system from a centralised/ decentralised system towards a distributed system of energy With the increase of both local and global energy consumption and renewable energy costs plummeting, the energy system has started to evolve... So, more and more it looks like pretty much like that:


Source: Daisee.org In a more decentralized organization relying on diffuse renewable resources, production points are more local and close to consumption points. There are mainly 4 problems related to this new decentralised organisation:

● First, energy producers and dispatchers do not know well (usually not at all) the real time consumption pattern at the micro-level, meaning they do not have meaningful energy consumption information on their clients that would help to real time optimize the production/consumption balance;

● Second, in current systems energy losses are huge (between 7 and 12% of the total production) because of losses in the pipes making the grid;

● Third, the current systems do not take the full potential of local resources; those systems are not in place and not consistent with developing countries issues about energy accessibility;

● Last but not least, consumers do not get real interaction with energy, making raising awareness on reducing energy consumption hard. The only relation you've got with your energy provider is, first the bill, second the switch.

The solution that is proposed here to solve those problems is to experiment and move towards a (more) distributed energy systems organization, like that:


Source: Daise.org Distributed energy systems will help to develop decentralised autonomous energy organisations, thus providing strong and resilient answers to the here-above mentioned challenges. In line with this smart grid challenge, the DAISEE project was created in Lyon, France. Its mission is to build the "Internets of Energy" and organise energy as a “common”. Their aim is to deploy open-source secured decentralized autonomous energy production systems and consumption monitoring, in line with building micro-grid infrastructures; thus enabling trusted peer-to-peer energy transactions through the blockchain technology. There are 3 packages in their master plan:

● Energy monitoring: how to securely monitor energy consumption / production on a system based on open-source technologies?

● Machine dialogue: how to make objects take consensual decisions while dealing energy-token between them about who’s consuming what-when-how ?

● Trusted transactions: how to make it possible to make peer-to-peer energy transactions at the district / town / territory level?

3.2 Blockchain could help the transport industry migrating from fossil fuels to electricity Facilitating charging of Electric vehicles: slock.it project Blockchain technology could be used to build a simple, blockchain-based billing model and thereby help remove one of the largest barriers currently preventing users from adopting electric mobility on a large scale. Widespread use of electric vehicles (EV) can only become a reality if EV drivers can access charging stations


everywhere. One issue we face today is how to simplify billing at charging stations, which may be located in public spaces where they can be used by anyone. Blockchain technology could be one option (besides other advanced payment models) on which to base a model under which EV drivers could park their cars, for example to go shopping, whilst the car autonomously logs on to a charging station and is recharged automatically (in the long run maybe even through induction). Once the driver leaves the parking lot, the charging station would automatically bill them for the electricity received, using blockchain technology. Slock.it is a German start-up that was founded by early members of the Ethereum project. They are currently running a pilot project with RWE, a large German utility firm that supplies energy to 30+ million people. The first one of these projects is an autonomous electric charging station, integrating a smart contract that allows users to rent the station, put up a deposit, charge their car, then get their deposit back. Beside the end user experience, what would make this solution superior to a centralized one? First it will offer simplified billing: the charging station works on behalf of RWE and handles user authentication, payment processing and loyalty point assignments as part of one single immutable transaction. Second, it aims to get rid of the centralized server. Here, RWE makes proper use of the public blockchain by leveraging a shared resource and paying only for what it uses. In effect, they are renting access to the network of computers working for Ethereum (the so-called “world computer”). Third, it guarantees fraud-proof accounting — all the transactions take place on the blockchain allowing them to have complete transparency over the transaction process. Last but not least, using blockchain makes onboarding channel partners simple, by leveraging open APIs instead of service oriented architectures. Slock-it is also developing Share&Charge, a pilot project using blockchain technology with Innogy, another German utility. Share&Charge enables users to easily share their private Electric Vehicle charging stations. The user experience consists of mobile geolocation app to identify and navigate to a given service, in this case a charging pole. Once at the pole (provided in a peer to peer fashion by another Share&Charge user), the consumer swipe their cellphone and makes use of the charging service, paying only for what they use. The operator of the pole is rewarded in tokens valued at EUR 1 they can then use to consume other services on the platform, including gaining access to 3rd party offers, or redeeming the tokens for cash. Share&Charge leverages the blockchain, and has chosen Ethereum in particular because of its support for smart contracts. On this chain the system creates a token,


to which it assigns a mobility value denominated in EUR, (not dissimilar to a gift card). Users can purchase these tokens or earn tokens by providing services. This creates a decentralized marketplace that couldn’t exist as part of a traditional model: third party services from partners synchronise around a shared state, without having to ask permission or make use of cumbersome APIs. A private Ethereum Blockchain ensures the transparency and security needed to retain the trust of our partners but also the Share&Charge users. Slock.it mobile application enables anyone to benefit from a platform secured by proven cryptographic principles without knowing the technical details behind it, making it as easy to use as any other mobile application. To this decentralized marketplace slock.it aims to one day add the services of autonomous machines, for example cars pre-authorized to pay for the energy they need, without any human intervention. Share&Charge in effect inherits from the blockchain core characteristics: namely immutability, refutability, and automation, all three of which leading to cost reduction and the creation of never seen before peer-to-peer services.

3.3 Blockchain could help reduce the energy consumption The first objective of the French law for the energy transition and green growth (loi pour la Transition Énergétique et la Croissance Verte) is to reduce the final energy consumption in France by 20% between 2012 and 2030 and by 50% in 2050. In the current centralised systems, energy losses are huge (between 7 and 12% of the total production) because of losses in the pipes making the grid. Relying on peer-to-peer energy transaction through micro-grid at the local level (thanks to the blockchain) makes it possible to significantly reduce energy losses in the grid since electricity does not have to cross the country to reach the consumption point. Blockchain could help overcome yet another major issue about consumer behaviour towards energy. Energy practice theory postulates that energy is not used consciously or rationally, but rather as the ‘by-product’ of practices like cooking, washing, showering, working, commuting, watching TV, socializing, and travelling. Such practices are often driven by routines and socially shaped expectations. It renders attempts to promote energy reduction difficult. A distributed system makes it possible to switch from pure consumer to "prosumers", giving a way for people to be involved in energy governance. Not only this helps to tackle on-ground needs but also to make energy a palpable good.


4. What are the risks about the blockchain today? Blockchain technology is still in its early-stages of development at present, which means that it comes with a range of uncertainties and risks. Outside the Bitcoin context – the most established blockchain application to date – no long-term experience with the blockchain is available. Many experts also suspect that blockchain technology might not be as scalable as needed. Given the extremely fast rate of data growth, the sheer data volumes accumulating after several years of operating a blockchain place high demands in terms of security, speed and costs.

4.1 High energy intensity required by the verification process Proof-of-Work (POW) System or mining (the verification process used for the bitcoin) is reputedly highly secure but its mining process is highly energy-intensive and therefore lacks the scale required by the energy market. During the conference about blockchain & energy at MIT in , Lawrence Orsini, CEO of LO3 argues that moving into blockchain, energy would “create a scale that surpasses bitcoin. There are huge energy costs attached to bitcoin blockchain and moving to other distributed verification systems like the Ripple protocol or Proof-of Stake Systems (PoST) in order to secure the blockchain would be necessary.”

Proof-of-Stake (PoST) blockchain securitization has been demonstrated to reduce electricity usage by 99% when compared to POW blockchain securitization.

4.2 Security risks Discarding POW system of verification for the energy blockchain for scalability reason will entail a higher security risk. This was unfortunately proven by the attack on the application “DAO” (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which came to light in the summer 2016. The DAO works on the Ethereum blockchain with PoST verification process. Due to faulty programming, a hacker could extract several millions from the DAO before it was stopped. Joichi Ito argues that the ultimate way to reconcile security and reasonable energy spending during the verification process would be to do a Proof-of-Work that would be computationally useful for other computer applications. Such a process however is still at R&D level according to Mr Ito.


4.3 Impact on the energy bill for the consumer Blockchain models operate on the assumption that all providers transact directly with their customers. One consequence of this would be that the intermediaries previously operating in the market, among them trading platforms, traders, banks or energy companies, might no longer be needed at all but in any case they would be reduced to a considerably smaller role. This could lead to a significant decrease in system costs. On the other hand, there are the operating costs of blockchain systems, which include transaction fees for blockchain transactions. As we have seen above the required computing power and related energy use might also have to be factored in the actual operational cost of the blockchain. So that the actual costs of blockchain applications cannot be projected today. And so what? Should lowering the bill be the ultimate reason for implementing the blockchain in the energy market? Some pioneers of the energy blockchain claim it should not. Said Lawrence Orsini, CEO of LEO“You are not going to care about the 5$ that the blockchain is going to save you on your energy bill but you are going to care about other things: how the energy was produced? who produced it? was it produced in my community?” In Olivier Sellès’ opinion “we shall not motivate people to invest in renewable energy by promising monetary gains but by offering additional services”. There is anyway not many monetary gains to be expected from a local renewable energy power plant. And today these gains are offset by the technology required to show these gains to the users. The objective of Olivier Sellès is therefore to build a use case with the building’s inhabitants. His aim is to supply a low-cost tool that will generate interest for renewable energies among the people living in the building. For Olivier Sellès Blockchain is just the technology that will help do that because it allows a low-cost access to the data required to build user-friendly interface for the prosumers. To him the blockchain should help achieve a sense of local community through energy sharing between inhabitants.

4.4 Regulatory limitations Today the French government promulgation order of July 2016 does not allow commercial transactions on a peer-to-peer basis within local smart grids (see annex 2). Today the prosumer has to give its surplus for free to Enedis, the French DSO. The legislator has yet to define the tariff Enedis (the so-called TURPE, see below) will collect on every kwh which will be carried over the local smart grid or in-between local smart grids.


Price structure of the electricity in France Source: Hespul Energy blockchain advocates argue that the “TURPE” should be minimal for local smart grids since the transactions occur within a very small area. Enedis on its side explains that a local smart grid needs to be connected to the broader centralised grid even if only there is a local glitch in the local smart grid. Consumers would then appreciate to be supplied by a neighbouring local smart grid thanks to the existing centralised network. The Ministry of ecology, sustainable development & energy has mandated the “Comité de Régulation de l’Énergie” (the French regulatory body for energy, so-called CRE) to determine the TURPE for prosumers. The CRE decision in that matter will be highly scrutinised by the local actors of the blockchain for energy market as it will strongly impact their business models and consequently the future of local smart grids powered by renewable energies.

5. Conclusion

Under the current system, energy is produced in centralised generation facilities and delivered to industrial and domestic users via the electrical grid managed by distribution system operators (like Enedis in France).

Traders buy and sell energy on the exchanges and banks act as payment service providers, handling the transactions made by the parties involved. Blockchain-based energy processes would no longer require energy companies, traders or banks (for payments). Instead, a decentralised energy-transaction and supply system would emerge, under which blockchain-based smart contract applications empower consumers to manage their own electricity supply contracts and consumption data. Blockchain technology could give a boost to a currently emerging trend: the rise of the role of the prosumer. Lower transaction costs and simpler billing processes would


enable small providers or energy consumers to participate in the market not only as consumers but also as providers.

Consumers who operate their own solar systems, for instance, could more easily sell on the electricity they produce to their neighbours or feed it into the network. This would improve the economic viability of solar systems, small-scale wind turbines or customer-owned CHP plants, which in turn would increase the number of prosumers. Consumers also stand to benefit from a more diverse product offering and lower prices. In addition, blockchain models could facilitate the realisation of community- funded energy projects.

Simplified routes to market for distributed energy generators would further boost the growth of renewables. Indirectly this might also have a positive effect on the economic structures in their region. Distributed generation can provide economic stimulus through services, for example in the fields of maintenance or operations. Increased deployment of windpower could be a particular benefit in areas with little infrastructure and slow economic growth.

Nonetheless whether users’ awareness of the technology will grow will also be dependent on the availability of concrete suitable applications for consumers. At present, blockchain is a purely technology-driven development. There are no suitable applications available for customers who wish to actively control and manage their energy supply, nor are there automated software solutions for customers who do not want active control of their energy supply. The first group of end customers require suitable applications they can use without difficulty. These apps must be user-friendly, easy to use and effective. No such applications have emerged as yet, although individual companies like Bouygues Immobilier in France and start-ups (like Stratumn, Energisme in France, Consensys in the USA, Slock.it in Germany) are working to develop solutions.

Customers who do not wish to actively manage their energy supply, for example because they do not own a smartphone or do not want to spend any time on doing this, require automated software solutions. Blockchain technology will not succeed in the energy sector unless such applications are developed and used on a large scale.

Overall, it can be said at the present point in time that blockchain technology certainly shows a lot of potential – from a customer perspective too – and should be further developed by market participants. The approaches seen thus far may have a disruptive effect in the future and might require additional regulatory intervention in an already tightly regulated energy market. If blockchains are to deliver benefits for consumers and consequently help accelerate the energy transition in Europe, a strong focus on consumer issues will be needed.


6. Annexes Annex 1: The proof-of-concept method Proof of Process is a scalable protocol that allows multiple partners to trust a common process, or a workflow, by decoupling the proof of data from the secret data in a way that results in a single contextual proof that spans all the steps of a process. In life and the world at large, we see processes everywhere. A process is any sequence of steps in time. Whenever there is a movement of information, ideas, conversations, goods and products, we have a process. If we can play back the steps of a process, then we have enabled auditing and traceability. And if every step in a process can demonstrate its veracity to observers, then we have transparency. Traditionally, when institutions want to share their set of processes with each other, they have to create common bridges to share their data. Those bridges usually consist of APIs, firewalls, and access management. These bridges leave us two important questions: How can we trust the data? And once the data is trusted, can we reuse the trust? The prevalence of Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms have resulted in more and more consumers to rely on someone else’s processes and systems for their business and data. For such platforms proving that their platform can be trusted to their customers is highly critical. Proof system A proof system is what enables a first party (called a 'Prover') to exchange messages with a second party ('Verifier') to convince the Verifier that the subject of the proof to be true within the context of their mutually agreed upon source of trust. Figure 2. Proof System There can be two kinds of proof systems. For a posteriori and subjective facts a proof system can be made to establish a protocol for capturing enough information from a process to build a proof that can demonstrate the trust that established the process in the first place. For a priori facts: being computationally verifiable, by enabling code execution for validating each step of a process where the code execution is deterministic in nature. Thus, the validation logic acts as the proof system. For the purpose of this paper, we only focus on the former: proof system for a posteriori and subjective facts. And we are not checking if the facts were established in an honest way. However, for established facts, we are enabling a proof system to demonstrate who established what, when, where, and how. These facts are in the context of a process; thus, the proof system covers all of the steps of process. Proof of Process is a scalable protocol that allows multiple partners to trust a common process, or a workflow, by decoupling the proof of data from the data in a way that results in a single contextual proof that spans all the steps of a process. In


fact there can be a separate thread, one for the actual process with factual steps, another for the proof system corresponding to the actual process. Thus, the trust source that attests datasets as facts through fact-checking in turn builds a separate thread for enabling proofs to verify the veracity of the facts. By separating the proof of data from the data itself, the proof of process can exist in parallel to the actual process. The proof of process can contain minimal information, and no sensitive data from the actual process but can be used to verify the veracity of the facts of the actual process. Source: Stratumn, Proof of process


Annex 2: Ordonnance n° 2016-1019 du 27 juillet 2016 relative à l’autoconsommation d’électricité Le 26 janvier 2017 JORF n°0174 du 28 juillet 2016 Le Président de la République, Sur le rapport du Premier ministre et de la ministre de l’environnement, de l’énergie et de la mer, chargée des relations internationales sur le climat, Vu la Constitution, notamment son article 38 ; Vu le code de l’énergie, notamment ses articles L. 111-91, L. 322-8, L. 333-1 et L. 341-3 ; Vu le code de justice administrative, notamment son article R. 123-20 ; Vu la loi n° 2015-992 du 17 août 2015 relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte, notamment son article 119 ; Vu l’avis du Conseil supérieur de l’énergie en date du 14 juin 2016 ; Vu l’avis de la Commission de régulation de l’énergie en date du 13 juillet 2016 ; Vu l’avis du Conseil national d’évaluation des normes en date du 21 juillet 2016 ; Le Conseil d’Etat (section des travaux publics) entendu ; Le conseil des ministres entendu, Ordonne : Article 1 Le titre Ier du livre III du code de l’énergie est complété par un chapitre V ainsi rédigé : « Chapitre V « L’autoconsommation « Art. L. 315-1.-Une opération d’autoconsommation est le fait pour un producteur, dit autoproducteur, de consommer lui-même tout ou partie de l’électricité produite par son installation. « Art. L. 315-2.-L’opération d’autoconsommation est collective lorsque la fourniture d’électricité est effectuée entre un ou plusieurs producteurs et un ou plusieurs consommateurs finals liés entre eux au sein d’une personne morale et dont les points de soutirage et d’injection sont situés sur une même antenne basse tension du réseau public de distribution. Nom Vincent Poizat 35/41 Mémoire Master 2 - Digital Marketing 2016

« Art. L. 315-3.-La Commission de régulation de l’énergie établit des tarifs d’utilisation des réseaux publics de distribution d’électricité spécifiques pour les consommateurs participants à des opérations d’autoconsommation, lorsque la puissance installée de l’installation de production qui les alimente est inférieure à 100 kilowatts. « Art. L. 315-4.-La personne morale mentionnée à l’article L. 315-2 organisatrice d’une opération d’autoconsommation collective indique au gestionnaire de réseau public de distribution compétent la répartition de la production autoconsommée entre les consommateurs finals concernés. « Lorsqu’un consommateur participant à une opération d’autoconsommation collective fait appel à un fournisseur pour compléter son alimentation en électricité, le gestionnaire du réseau public de distribution d’électricité concerné établit les index de consommation de l’électricité relevant de ce fournisseur en prenant en compte la répartition mentionnée à l’alinéa précédent. « Art. L. 315-5.-Les injections d’électricité sur le réseau public de distribution effectuées dans le cadre d’une opération d’autoconsommation à partir d’une installation de production d’électricité, dont la puissance installée maximale est fixée par décret, et qui excèdent la consommation associée à cette opération d’autoconsommation sont, à défaut d’être vendues à un tiers, cédées à titre gratuit au gestionnaire du réseau public de distribution d’électricité auquel cette installation de production est raccordée. « Ces injections sont alors affectées aux pertes techniques de ce réseau. « Art. L. 315-6.-Les gestionnaires de réseaux publics de distribution d’électricité mettent en œuvre les dispositifs techniques et contractuels nécessaires, notamment en ce qui concerne le comptage de l’électricité, pour permettre la réalisation dans des conditions transparentes et non discriminatoires des opérations d’autoconsommation. « Art. L. 315-7.-Les exploitants d’installations de production d’électricité participant à une opération d’autoconsommation déclarent ces installations au gestionnaire du réseau public d’électricité compétent, préalablement à leur mise en service. « Art. L. 315-8.-Les conditions d’application du présent chapitre sont définies par décret. » Article 2 Après le 3° du I de l’article L. 111-91 du code de l’énergie, il est inséré un alinéa ainsi rédigé :


« 4° Les opérations d’autoconsommation mentionnées au chapitre V du titre Ier du livre III. » Article 3 Les exploitants d’installations de production d’électricité participant à une opération d’autoconsommation à la date de publication de la présente ordonnance procèdent à la déclaration prévue à l’article L. 315-7 du code de l’énergie avant le 31 mars 2017. Article 4 Le Premier ministre et la ministre de l’environnement, de l’énergie et de la mer, chargée des relations internationales sur le climat, sont responsables, chacun en ce qui le concerne, de l’application de la présente ordonnance, qui sera publiée au Journal officiel de la République française. Fait le 27 juillet 2016. François Hollande Par le Président de la République : Le Premier ministre, Manuel Valls La ministre de l’environnement, de l’énergie et de la mer, chargée des relations internationales sur le climat, Ségolène Royal


Sources 1/ http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/energy-union-and-climate_en 2/http://www.focas-reading-room.eu/digital-currency-for-green-energy-can-boost-the-renewable-economy/#cite-energyascurrency2012

3/ Blockchain – an opportunity for energy producers and consumers? - PWC, Global Power & utilities

4/ http://www.fastcoexist.com/3058380/world-changing-ideas/how-blockchain-technology-could-decentralize-the-energy-grid

5/ Boosting the Renewable Energy Economy with NRGcoin

6/ NRG-X-Change: a Novel Mechanism for Trading of Renewable Energy in Smart Grids

7/ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/blockchain-technology-could-enable-next-generation-peer-to-peer-energy-microgrids-1461596932 8/ https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/05/06/daos-dacs-das-and-more-an-incomplete-terminology-guide/

9/ The Blockchain: Enabling a Distributed and Connected Energy Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpMwPhA9QzM

10/ McKinsey: How Blockchains Could Change the World

11/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mckinsey-how-blockchains-could-change-world-don-tapscott

12/ FOX NEWS "Going solar in the city”

https://youtu.be/sgyV0Uqa0fk?list=PLVCWCZL8ZZ0SEDbUGoWrkJTfvwM2zTzzX


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13/ A Renewable Energy Powered Trustless Value Transfer Network - Connecting the Blockchain to the Sun to Save the Planet - Authors: Luke P. Johnson, Solcrypto 14/ https://blog.slock.it/partnering-with-rwe-to-explore-the-future-of-the-energy-sector-1cc89b9993e6#.r0zsb0cej 15/ Daisee project

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16/ http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/07/06/l-austerite-dans-le-monde-comment-les-mesures-dausterite-ont-mis-a-bas-lindustrie-solaire---serie_n_1653179.html?utm_hp_ref=france

17/ http://www.slate.fr/story/31229/energie-solaire-gel-photovoltaique


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http://www.slate.fr/story/31229/energie-solaire-gel-photovoltaique

Thanks A special thank to Malorie Clermont & Nicolas Hebert from Hespul in Lyon. They first responded to my request for interview and made me aware that blockchain was high in the agenda of the energy market players. Olivier Sellès from Bouygues Immobilier for the interview. I wish him good luck in his project and look forward to updating this paper with his findings.

Véronique Colbert for her inspiring class at IPSSI DM about the memoir and her support at the early stage of this work.

Sébastien Couture, Director of community relations, Stratumn

Dr Mihailov from the Free university of Bruxelles

Christophe Bonazzi, CEO of Webistem for letting me do this Master

Alexandre Stopnicki for his spirited management of the MSc Digital Marketing at IPSSI DM
