Clearway Energy Group – a US-based, top-tier clean energy provider – is set to run a pilot test for a new Blockchain-based electronic marketplace, devoted to trading renewable energy credits.

Clearway Energy Group has collaborated with Power Ledger – a tech startup that develops a blockchain-enabled energy trading platform, to build a system, specifically designed to track and trade their renewable energy certificates dubbed RECs.

Clearway will be initiating test pilot for 2 projects, located in 2 different places in the US. The first will take place in Massachusetts, which generates from 1-5 megawatts of electrical power, and the second project will be in the Midwest, possessing a 20-megawatt electricity generating capacity.

The RECs market in the US has an estimated value of over $3 billion, and the expenses for transaction processes can account for 3% or 10% more. 

As revealed via a phone interview by Jemma Green – Power Ledger Executive Chairman – despite the availability of a number of effective digital-based solutions, to help with the tracing process of RECs, from their first generating point to their retired point, the costs will climb up when trying to use brokers or bilateral contracts across state lines, as a means to combine or trade the RECs.

Clearway looks to provide a solution to the problem with this new marketplace, which comes with a reduced cost and increased efficiency compared to existing measures. The pilot test will run for a few months, and will officially expand in 2020.