Acciona uses blockchain to show stored electricity comes from wind and solar

Spanish renewable energy group Acciona says it has become the first company to apply blockchain technology to certify the 100 per cent renewable origin of the energy fed into the grid from its two storage facilities in Navarre in Spain.

Electricity grids are a little bit like a bank. If you draw money out of an ATM, it is highly likely those will not be the same notes you fed into the banking system. And so it is with the grid.

Blockchain, however, is a ledger system that can account for individual transactions, and can be used to very claims such as 100% renewables.

Acciona says it has now integrated blockchain technology at a solar plant in Tudela and a wind power plant in Barásoain, which was the first hybrid storage facility combing wind power with batteries in 2017.

Acciona says the blockchain technology guarantees and certifies that the energy supplied from battery storage facilities comes exclusively from renewable sources and does so in real time and in a transparent way.

“Certifying the renewable origin of energy is increasingly widespread, associated with the growth of the corporate procurement of green energy, and blockchain technology can greatly facilitate this service to clients in any part of the world,” says Acciona director of innovation Belén Linares.

“We are very pleased to have taken this first step in a service that will surely grow in importance over the next few years.”

Acciona says its “STORe^–CHAIN®” system manages data recorded by power counters in wind and solar plants and matches the energy produced with renewable energy certificates. This data is stored in a blockchain platform that acts as a guarantor of the legitimacy of these green certificates and which can be accessed by a client at any time.

The plant at Barásoain is equipped with a storage system consisting of two batteries, one a fast-response 1 MW/0.39 MWh and another 0.7 MW/0.7 MWh, which has greater autonomy.

Both are connected to a 3-megawatt (rated capacity) Nordex AW116/3000 wind turbine. Last May the plant received the first certification in the world from DNV GL for a grid-connected electricity storage solution.

The photovoltaic facility near Tudela has a storage system with one 1 MW/650 kWh battery.