Blockchain-powered P2P energy trading on trial at Britain’s biggest social housing PV installation
Verv, an energy monitoring and AI company, has laid claim to launching the UK’s first energy trading community at a housing estate in Hackney, East London.
The machine learning specialist has collaborated with community renewables developer Repowering London to conduct a field trial of its blockchain-based peer-to-peer energy trading solution at Banister House, a housing estate which has previously benefitted from community solar installs.
Verv has said the project will see the first physical trading of energy in the UK, the results of which will be used to help further roll out of such schemes across the UK.
The Verv 2.0 platform is to be installed in 40 participating flats throughout the community, allowing them to share renewably-sourced energy between one another.
It will use electricity sourced from Banister House Solar, the UK’s largest community energy scheme established on social housing, which was launched in 2015. Solar panels were installed on 17 blocks of flats that make up the estate.
Verv said the addition of its platform alongside communal battery storage systems, to be provided by local manufacturer Powervault, would allow energy produced by the solar systems to be stored, shared and traded between flats to reduce wastage.
