CommUNITY+ comes together!
Here at the R&D UK Centre we are proud of the CommUNITY+ project that is based in Brixton, London. Since February 2020 it has brought together empowered solar energy neighbourhoods. With no upfront cost, the participants reduced their energy bills by more than 20%.
Innovative technology gives community flexibility
Residents are given a portion of the energy generated by the solar panels on the rooftop of the building where they live. The local community can share or sell their unused solar energy to their local community. This is called a peer-to-peer exchange.
To create this new peer-to-peer market, the R&D teams worked on a solution to provide the residents with a platform that puts control directly into their hands. This was done by using a new emerging technology called blockchain. Blockchain increases transparency and control to individuals in a scalable way at a low-cost.
Even more savings for the customers
Last November, we finally went on site to meet the customers and installed the battery. Since then we have increased the community self-consumption as we are now providing flexibility services to the distribution network. This means even more savings for the participants.
CommUNITY+ not only has social benefits but also demonstrates the potential of blockchain within the energy sector. The project is one of the first of its kind in the UK.