Elblox offers blockchain platform for green energy

Local aspects are already of great importance in the food sector. Elblox, a start-up from Olten, anticipates that regionality will gain in significance for energy procurement as well. This is why the company has developed a platform that allows users to compose their own mixture of energy from regional producers. The platform is based on blockchain technology. Users can for instance use it to buy energy from a neighbor’s solar energy system, from the biogas system of a farmer in a neighboring village, or from a wind farm in the region. The technology can be used to follow the energy supply in real time.

Frédéric Maurer, Head of Sales and Development at Elbox, explains in an article by the Economic Development Division of the Canton of Solothurn: “The basic idea came up in 2015 during a management workshop at the Swiss energy group Axpo.” Elblox itself was founded as a spin-off from Axpo in 2018.

Since then, Elblox has already seen some success. The company’s platform is already in use in Germany, Sweden, and Finland but it has yet to be implemented in Switzerland. Maurer explains that this is due to “the lack of energy market liberalization for small customers with consumption up to 100,000 kilowatt-hours per year.” However, Maurer adds that Elblox is already working on pilot projects in Switzerland.