Power Ledger (POWR) is one of the most fascinating ERC20 cryptocurrencies because they link it to several physical projects.
To explain, Power Ledger is developing Ethereum blockchain energy-trading platforms. Some of those platforms trade energy from existing physical projects. For instance, they use Power Ledger tech for peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of electricity from rooftop solar in Kansai, Chubu, Kyushu, Japan.
In addition, they use Power Ledger for P2P trading of solar electricity in Wongan-Ballidu, Western Australia. To explain, Power Ledger, Central Midlands WA Inc., BSC Solar, Sonnen, and Clean Tech Energy are collaborating on the Wongan-Ballidu project.
Furthermore, Power Ledger and Vicinity Centres are trading solar electricity generated on Australian shopping center roofs. Power Ledger claims 70 tenants could participate in the project. In addition, Vicinity has invested $28 million and committed $75 million to the project. If it goes as planned, Vicinity could install enough solar panels to generate 2.24 megawatts (MW) of electricity at its malls.
Could Power Ledger Make Money?
Thus, Power Ledger’s plan is to make money by trading a real commodity real people use everyday: energy.
Power Ledger offers Ethereum blockchain software that could facilitate renewable energy trading across three markets. Those markets are Energy Trading, Environmental Commodities Trading, and Renewable Asset Ownership.
I guess people will use the POWR ERC20 (Ethereum Request for Comment) cryptocurrency to buy and sell energy and commodity on the Power Ledger platforms. For example, you could buy partial ownership in solar panels, wind mills, and other pieces of renewable energy infrastructure with Power Ledger (POWR).
Environmental commodities could include carbon and renewable energy credits. Power Ledger is developing a blockchain app they call C6. Companies will use C6 to track energy usage and carbon generation through smart meters.
The hope is to make utilities more efficient and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they generate. A more advanced they call C6+ could serve as a digital marketplace and exchange for carbon and renewable energy.
Theoretically, C6+ could tokenize carbon credits. Ideally, a utility could trade the carbon credits for solar-generated electricity.
Power Ledger Wants to Make Everybody an Energy Trader
You could use Power Ledger’s Energy Trading platform to sell excess electricity from your solar panels to your neighbours for Power Ledger (POWR). Utilities could use the same platform to sell excess electricity on the open market for POWR.
Plus, Power Ledger’s VPP 2.0 could allow households and businesses to sell electricity from batteries on the open market for Power Ledger (POWR) tokens. Hence, products such as the Tesla PowerWall could pay for themselves with VPP 2.0’s help.
Additionally, electric car owners could sell electricity from their vehicles’ batteries through VPP 2.0. Plus, you could theoretically use VPP 2.0 buy electricity from your neighbor to charge to your Tesla Model 3.
How Power Ledger Could Cash in on Electric Vehicles
Notably, Silicon Valley Power in Santa Clara, California, uses Power Ledger technology monetize electric vehicle infrastructure. The hope is to use tokenized carbon trading to pay for juice for electric vehicles.
Power Ledger claims Silicon Valley Power distributes 15,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity to vehicles each quarter. I think Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power could serve a huge market someday.
The International Energy Agency estimates 30% of the world’s vehicles could be electric by 2030. Currently 1% of the world’s autos; around 5.1 million vehicles, are electric, CNBC estimates. Thus, Power Ledger’s market is still theoretical.
Trading Solutions from Power Ledger
Other trading solutions from Power Ledger include the PPA Vision data management and settlement system. The PPA Vision enables large electricity producers to manage and track the power they generate.
The xGrid is a platform that allows homeowners and businesses to sell electricity from rooftop solar panels. The uGrid could enable owners of larger buildings; such as shopping centers, to sell electricity from rooftop solar panels.
For instance, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) could use the uGrid to sell electricity generated by panels on the roofs of its massive supercenters. I think the uGrid could be big business because Walmart operates 3,570 Supercenters in the United States.
Will Power Ledger Work?
Strangely, the greatest obstacle to Power Ledger’s success could be Ethereum itself. To explain, Ethereum’s blockchain has a limited capacity.
“Scalability is a big bottleneck because the Ethereum blockchain is almost full,” Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin told The Toronto Star in August 2019. To explain, blockchain has little capacity because of all the encryption and security measures.
Consequently, most experts estimate the Ethereum blockchain can only process 15 transactions per second (TPS), CoinDesk claims. Thus, a Power Ledger app could crash if 20 people try to use it at once.
Hence, Power Ledger could need to adopt a different blockchain such as EOS (EOS). The EOS Network Monitor estimates EOS has processed up to 3,996 TPS in the past. However, EOS was only processing between 18 and 29 TPS on 5 December 2019.
Switching to new blockchain could be expensive and difficult. However, Power Ledger could have to adopt a more scalable blockchain; such as EOS, to survive.
What Value Does Power Ledger Have?
Under the present circumstances, Power Ledger’s (POWR) value is purely theoretical. Uses of it are limited, and evidence of success is lacking. Mr. Market; however, gives Power Ledger some value. For instance, CoinMarketCap gave POWR a 3.8₵ Coin Price; a $16.116 million Market Capitalization, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $1.01 million on 5 December 2019. In addition, there was a Circulating Supply of 421.985 million POWR, and a Total Supply of one billion POWR.
Additionally, Bancor’s Liquidity Network gave POWR a Coin Price of 3.8₵ and a liquidity depth of $24,991 on 5 December 2019. Bancor’s Liquidity Network makes easy to convert ERC20 Tokens by giving them cash value. The Liquidity is the value of the POWR in the Bancor Liquidity Network.
In the final analysis, Power Ledger is an interesting cryptocurrency that could have a lot of value someday. However, Power Ledger (POWR) will not have a real value until the Power Ledger platforms start making money.
