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Technology & Infrastructure

Blockchain

lead-authors: [Name] contributors: [Names] reviewers: [Names] version: 1.0 updated: March 2026 sensitivity: low ai-disclosure: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) assisted with stub content; awaiting full editorial development. status: planned short-desc:

Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies offer mechanisms for recording and executing energy transactions without a central intermediary, enabling new forms of peer-to-peer trading, renewable energy certificate tracking, and grid coordination.

Distributed ledger technologies promise peer-to-peer energy transactions without intermediaries. The governance question — who audits the auditors — remains substantially open.

Proponents argue that blockchain can reduce transaction costs in energy markets, enable communities to trade locally produced electricity directly, and create tamper-resistant audit trails for renewable certificates. Critics point to high energy consumption, scalability limitations, and the governance paradox: decentralised systems still require rules about who can participate and how disputes are resolved, which ultimately require centralised authority of some kind. Evidence from pilot projects is mixed, and regulatory frameworks for blockchain-based energy trading remain underdeveloped in most jurisdictions.

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{tag>blockchain}

References

Andoni, M., Robu, V., Flynn, D., Abram, S., Geach, D., Jenkins, D., McCallum, P., & Peacock, A. (2019). Blockchain technology in the energy sector: A systematic review of challenges and opportunities. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 100, 143–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.10.014