The Republic of Moldova — or, as it is often referred to as Moldova, a small country in Eastern Europe, which still remains the most understudied country in the region. Four years ago the country was on the verge of an energy crisis, and even now Moldova generates only one-quarter of electricity consumed. The situation threatens to regress to the state of 2014: March 31, ended the contract of the government of the Republic with the Ukrainian company DTEK Trading for supply of electricity.
However, all can change the blockchain. In the experiment of the United Nations development Programme (UNDP), one of the Moldovan universities will switch to solar energy, provided by the cryptocurrency.
The main partner of the initiative was the Sun Exchange, the South African marketplace specializing in this kind of energy. Sun Exchange engaged in the sale and supply of solar panels, which buyers can lease the Technical University of Moldova. As the main means of payment will be used SolarCoin, a token created by a startup ElectriCChain. In addition, to pay for solar panels will be in BTC and EUR. Instead, equipment owners will receive about 4% of their investments in SolarCoin — as soon as the University will independently produce one megawatt of electricity.
The meaning of the initiative is to find new sources of funding for the conversion of city buildings in a kind of alternative energy plant “overnight” — in this case, through the placement of panels on the roofs of buildings, said the Manager, UNDP Moldova Dumitru Vasilescu (Vasilescu Dumitru). Today in Moldova are empty 10,000 sq. m. roof surfaces, and this area could be used to host solar panels, he added.
Vasilescu also said that the problem of insufficient financing of nature not only for Moldova; alternative energy as an investment direction is in principle not so popular:
“One of the main difficulties faced by countries in transition to renewable energy is the lack of funds because investments in such projects are often repaid only in 10-15 years.”
The founder and CEO of Sun Exchange Abraham Cambridge (Cambridge Abraham) believes that his company has “a complete set of investment motivations”.
“Our model dramatically reduces the cost of switching to solar energy for consumers and allows anyone, regardless of location, to receive the income from the purchased solar cells”.
Kevin Trackon (Kevin Treco), Deputy Director, environmental resource centre Carbon Trust, says that blockchain technology can seriously change the power in countries seeking to decentralize power generation and to stimulate the growth of renewable resources.
If the experiment of UNDP and the Technical University of Moldova will be successful, the government can refuse to supply gas and oil from Russia. For the UNDP, a successful outcome means an opportunity to expand the initiative in the first place, on the bordering with Moldova the country, Vasilescu said, adding that the program is “to produce success in the markets of renewable energies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”.
As major international organizations like the UN, private corporations also use the blockchain in the field of sustainable development. So, IBM, together with the “green” startup Veridium Labs, plans to tokenservice carbon contracts granting the right to offset one ton of carbon nevypolnima.
