Australia’s Power Ledger, a blockchain-based renewable energy trader, has announced a partnership with Thai Digital Energy Development (TDED) to create a blockchain-based digital energy business developing peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading and environmental commodity trading solutions in Thailand.

Thai Digital Energy Development is a joint venture between the Thai government’s PEA ENCOM International, which is a subsidiary of Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), and BCPG Public Company Limited (BCPG), a Thailand-based company engaged in the production and sale of renewable energy.

According to the company’s statement, the new partnership will expand Power Ledger’s foothold in Thailand, which aims to generate 25% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2037.

Blockchain technology, a by-product of the cryptocurrency rush, is slowly being adopted across industries to promote operational and transactional transparency, thanks to its democratized and decentralized nature. Blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently. Blockchain-based technology has been gaining increasing popularity in numerous business segments around the globe, including solar.

“Blockchain-enabled transactive energy solutions, including peer-to-peer energy trading, virtual power projects, as well as renewable energy certificates. Carbon credits trading will be the key to establishing economically viable renewable energy markets. Our partnership with TDED will allow us to accelerate our efforts to promote distributed digital energy markets in Thailand,” said Dr. Jemma Green, the co-founder of Power Ledger.

According to the company, one of the first projects that will be in focus will be on energy and carbon management at the 12 MW smart campus at Chiang Mai University in Thailand’s north.

Bundit Sapianchai, the president of BCPG and TDED, said that Power Ledger is among the very first pioneers to apply blockchain technology in peer-to-peer energy trading and trading renewable energy certificates (RECs).

“Such expertise in the state-of-the-art technology will help materialize TDED’s goal in the development of digital energy products and services, as well as making clean energy more accessible to people,” Sapianchai added.

Power Ledger has been working with BCPG in Thailand since 2018, when it launched a P2P energy trading trial in Bangkok across the T77 precinct, the company noted.

Further, the company added that Power Ledger’s TraceX REC trading capabilities would be deployed in Thailand this year. It will provide a marketplace for renewable energy certificates and carbon credits trading between generators and buyers.

Last year, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) partnered with Power Ledger to launch trials for a peer-to-peer energy trading platform. The idea was to enable participants easier and cheaper access to renewable energy and for solar installation owners to monetize power, which would otherwise be wasted.

Previously, it was reported that Singapore’s SP Group, an energy utility group, launched one of the world’s first blockchain-powered renewable energy certificate marketplaces at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Energy Business Forum.