Dissertation about the 'Sharing' of Energy

[UlasYi]

Hello everyone,

I am an undergraduate student at Newcastle University London and I am currently writing my dissertation about the peer-to-peer trading of energy (the concept of the sharing economy, e.g. Uber or Airbnb). I am exploring how willing energy producers are to sell/'share' their excess energy via digital platforms and what their motivations would be for that. It would be a great help and appreciated if you fill out my questionnaire which does not take longer than five minutes.

This is the link to it: Energy Providers' Motivations to Share - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DYB39P8

Thank you for your time!

 

[marconi]

Is the idea that instead of for instance my brother-in-law selling the surplus output from his 5kWpeak energy system to the grid for pittance he could sell it for (pittance plus some) to an energy consumer over an agreed/contracted period facilitated by an on-line multi-user energy market? Is this a small scale idea as I have just suggested or a medium to large scale one too/only? In other words who are the participants in the market you want to create?

I'll have a go at the survey on his behalf.

 

[Simon47]

Just being pedantic, neither Uber nor Airbnb are "sharing" anything. Both are just long established trades with the addition of "via the internet" and false claims that they are doing sonething new. In the case of Uber, they keep finding out in court (when found guilty of ignoring the laws for that trade) that their business is nothing more than a traditional mini-cab office with better computers & software.

 

[UlasYi]

Is the idea that instead of for instance my brother-in-law selling the surplus output from his 5kWpeak energy system to the grid for pittance he could sell it for (pittance plus some) to an energy consumer over an agreed/contracted period facilitated by an on-line multi-user energy market? Is this a small scale idea as I have just suggested or a medium to large scale one too/only? In other words who are the participants in the market you want to create?

I'll have a go at the survey on his behalf.

There has been a pilot project in New York where energy producers could sell directly to their neighbours wherein blockchain and microgrid technologies enabled fully decentralized transactions (here is an article about this: The Brooklyn microgrid: blockchain-enabled community power - https://www.power-technology.com/features/featurethe-brooklyn-microgrid-blockchain-enabled-community-power-5783564/).
Although it was a small scale project, it holds big promise to be implemented on a national scale in the future, especially with the rise of Internet of Things and the Energy Internet.
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Just being pedantic, neither Uber nor Airbnb are "sharing" anything. Both are just long established trades with the addition of "via the internet" and false claims that they are doing sonething new. In the case of Uber, they keep finding out in court (when found guilty of ignoring the laws for that trade) that their business is nothing more than a traditional mini-cab office with better computers & software.

You are completely right, which is why I wrote it in apostrophes. Because you are selling a personal possession that you do not need at a certain moment to someone else who needs it, it could also be seen as renting something, or simply sharing. What is actually being shared in the whole sharing economy phenomena is the software behind the platform.