Guest curator this week, Natacha Rousseau, is a green energy and deep technology enthusiast, and lead content contributor to KlimaDAO.
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise how we produce, use and store green energy, by decentralising energy grids with verifiable data, through more effective coordination mechanisms, enabling peer-to-peer energy markets, and by providing new forms of economic incentives.
ReFi is starting to flow new investments into green-energy projects in ways that are changing the power dynamics of energy, by making citizens energy prosumers.
This is a huge topic and in this week's briefing we begin to explore the emerging trends and technologies that are driving growth of the tokenised green energy economy.
Energy Supply and Demand
For too long, climate solutions have been dominated by the supply side: Will natural gas be a bridge fuel? What will replace coal plants? Can hydrogen actually power the industry? These are all critical questions, but they only address half the question. We must bring the demand side of our energy system to the heart of the climate change debate.
Engineer and inventor Saul Griffith built a diagram of U.S. energy flows that identified at least a billion fuel-burning machines that need to be replaced with electric devices powered by renewable energy. “These electric purchases need to be the lowest-cost option at every point-of-purchase decision, as soon as possible, in every zip code.”
Green Energy Impacts
In a conversation with the founders of Vittoria Technology, we learn about green energy mini-grids and the opportunities to invest in innovative, for-profit solutions that increase access to renewable energy and impact on people's lives in Africa.
Mathilda de Villiers
Earth State Markets
Here's the latest intelligence on the tokens and markets that are contributing to growth of the Tokenised Earth Economy.
This week offered no real relief rally for investors after the previous week’s brutal drop. The total crypto market cap has fallen from its peak of $2.89 trillion to $1.22 trillion in about 190 days. That’s a loss of $1.67 trillion! To put that into perspective, only 14 countries have a GDP larger than the size of this economic loss!
The Terra collapse has put cryptocurrencies –particularly Stable Coins, under the spotlight for swift regulation. On a positive note, fears around USDT de-pegging have mostly disappeared as their treasury report released this week shows the stable coin is indeed fully collateralised.
The US dollar is finally weakening a bit which can signal a start of some risk in investing. The fear and greed index is at extreme fear! Buffett famously said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
📈Reference Markets over the past week
📊Impact Markets over the past week
📉DAO Shares over the past week
ℹ️ Remember that DAO’s with a rebase mechanism should be valued on their treasuries, and market cap increases are a more important metric than token prices, as high yields try to outpace price fluctuations.
Market Opportunities
- Get an Airdrop: The Optimism airdrop isn’t over. Here’s a great thread on how to qualify for the airdrops that are still raining down!
- Farm to earn 43% on USDC through Vires Finance.
- Apply to ReFi Spring who are on the search for a Marketing Lead.
Analysis of the Energy Web Token – $EWT
The Energy Web Foundation is on a mission is to accelerate decarbonisation of the global economy through decentralized, customer-centric electricity systems. The Energy Web Chain, economically powered by the $EWT Energy Web Token, is the world’s first enterprise-grade, public, open-source blockchain platform tailored to the sector’s regulatory, operational, and market needs.
Romain NEBOIT
Earth State NFTs
Solarpunk is a movement of people who are inspired to create a sustainable environment and future that offers economic freedom and equality. They have created a set of beautiful NFTs depicting what the future could look like after a radical societal shift.
If your rendering of the future has no people in it, what’s the point? Solarpunk aims to bring about the future we know that we’re capable of. One where technology and nature work in balance, where renewable energy powers our cities, community supported agriculture meet the needs of the community and distributed and open source technologies evolve it.
Earth State Technologies
- Smart Grids are a revolution in electricity networks by enabling two-way flows of both electricity and data. Smart metering is often seen as a first step. Smart grids have self-healing capabilities and allow electricity customers to become active participants in the energy economy.
Mike McCabe
Earth State Change
- Energy Consumers becoming energy prosumers. Brooklyn Microgrid (BMG) enable residential and commercial solar panel owners to become Prosumers in the energy market, by selling their excess energy production to local buyers – in this case, energy-conscious New Yorkers.
"If in the future you find yourself selling your excess solar panel energy to your neighbour via secure blockchain, you'll have one startup's actions on President Street in Brooklyn to thank." - Fast Company
- The topology of power. In the increasingly complex, weather-reliant and fragmented renewable energy market, congestion is becoming a growing problem. Equigy creates a trusted data exchange for energy aggregators to interface with smaller flexible devices, such as home batteries and electric vehicles, to balance electricity flows and create more stable markets.
“The topology of the power grid is simply not fit for the two-way traffic that’s being generated in this new exchange. It’s causing severe congestion in the grids – like traffic jams on the highway.” - Rene Kerkmeester, CEO
Mattias
- Power stakes. The Energy Web community has grown to be the largest open-source ecosystem focused on decentralised technology and the energy transition. Released earlier this month, ENGIE Energy Access launched the Crowdfund for Solar platform on the Energy Web Chain. This new staking platform allows Energy Web Token holders to support the installation of solar energy infrastructure for communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to get access to affordable and clean energy.
Impact DAOs
FlexiDAO is a cleantech startup based in Amsterdam and Barcelona, providing software solutions and advisory to help companies reach zero-carbon energy goals. They are also affiliate members of the Energy Web Foundation.
They have developed the CFEscore as tool for gathering business intelligence about how much green energy companies are using.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Earth State Culture
Saul Griffith wrote this surprisingly optimistic, realistic and persuasive book, outlining an action plan for the climate crisis through creating new jobs by electrifying everything.
Earth State Tweet of the Week
Energy Web and @RockyMtnInst are excited to unveil the first draft of our decarbonization approach to electricity in intensive industries. More details are here: https://t.co/g1mNGRkzaF
— Energy Web (@energywebx) May 9, 2022
Earth News
- War is speeding Europe's pivot to renewables. The 27 countries in the European Union got about a fifth of their total energy from renewables in 2020 and had planned to double that share to 40% by 2030. To reduce its dependancy on Russian oil and gas, this target has recently been raised to 45%, and is supported by the EU's Green Deal investments. With energy prices now rocketing, the economic case for renewables and energy independence has reached its tipping point.
Lars Paulsson | Bloomberg
- DAO deals in ReFi. This week, Solid World DAO and Toucan announced a partnership to create standard data formats for on-chain carbon markets. Solid World DAO will also de-risk forward markets for Carbon, making them more liquid and enabling DeFi loans. Listen to one of their recent Twitter Spaces for more information on the partnership.
- Green Mobility in India. Earlier this year, Mumbai-based EverSource Capital acquired a majority stake in Lithium Urban Technologies, the largest operator of passenger EVs in India. EverSource closed a $741 million green infrastructure fund. They have since launched their Inaugural Sustainbility Report, including the Eversource Impact Framework.
Earth Gatherings
Earth State Actions
- Watch the pitches from ReFi DAO finalists in the NFT Hackathon. “We had such a great time participating, networking with the other projects involved, and are excited to see how all of these projects progress over the next few months.”
- Participate online in this upcoming conference on systems thinking for carbon capture.
- Understand why accessibility is the major barrier to crypto adoption, and how this can be solved.
Studies have shown that only 33% of adults across the globe are financially literate.
Fabrice Cheng
- Subscribe to the new ReFi Podcast with thought leaders in the ReFi space.
🌍 For the Earth!
With charts currently in the red, let's remember that the future is Green, and Web3 is proving to be a critical technological and economic enabler of access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Join the weekly Earth State Twitter Space every Tuesday at 15:00 UTC, where we discuss what's moving in ReFi and the Tokenised Earth Economy.
This article is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. For tax advice talk to your accountant. DYOR – Do your own research.
