Increasing democratic energy access
The coming years, 250 million Indians will reach a threshold where their income will allow for significant energy consumption. In the context of the Paris agreements and the energy transition to sustainability, these 250 million people will play an important role in combating climate change and maintaining the progressive march into a better future.
This is why Yvo, Dirk and Rhythima came up with Energy Bazaar. Yvo explains: ‘In India, I met a man. He was a farmer and he had invested in a rudimentary but pragmatic irrigation system powered by 6 big solar panels. I asked him what happened to the energy when he was not using his irrigation system. The man frowned and discarded the thought of utilizing it for something else. The solar panels were meant to power the irrigation system and he was not able to use it for something else, at least he did not know that. Meanwhile, neighbours were lighting their kerosene stoves to prepare dinner… Something seemed strange.
Access to energy should be a right. It contributes to organisation, collaboration and education. The responsibility for guiding those who are on the verge of energy-access into sustainable consumption lies not only with the farmer, the blacksmith and the nurse in rural India. It also lies with the government, the academic system and the industrial sector.
We conclude 3 pillars to energization within a sustainable innovation framework:
- Increase energy access
- Democratise energy ownership
- Maintain Sustainable Development
Because of the decreasing costs for solar panels and the rapid adoption of technology, consumers will become ‘prosumers’. They should be allowed to trade their energy for a fair price on a transparent marketplace.
This is what Energy Bazaar wants to provide:
- Easy access by making the platform freely accessible.
- Democratization by creating a decentralized platform for all involved parties on the Indian energy market through blockchain technology.
- Ownership by creating the possibility for everybody to trade their generated energy on the platform using smart-meters.
- Sustainable innovation through the use of a self-developed framework.
