Distributed Ledgers and Decentralised Energy in Sub Saharan Africa

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Business and Management Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Development Studies)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Dr JJ Cross
School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh

Standard

EPSRC

01 February 2018

31 January 2020

24 months

£485,287

Info. & commun. Technol.

Scotland

Digital Economy : Digital Economy

Dr JJ Cross, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

Dr M Hazas, Computing, Lancaster University
Dr K Montague, Sch of Computin, Newcastle University
Professor P Olivier, Computing Sciences, Newcastle University
Dr NS Wade, Electrical, Electronic & Computer Eng, Newcastle University

Project Contact, GSM Association (GSMA)
Project Contact, ElectriCChain, Andorra

The global mobile phone industry has emerged as an important partner in achieving the UN's goals of sustainable energy access for all in Sub Saharan Africa. Support for mobile enhanced energy services in the region driven by the Groupe Sp ciale Mobile Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. The GSMA has identified distributed ledger technologies as a key area of interest with the potential to transform existing business models for decentralised or off grid energy services in sub Saharan Africa and accelerate access to sustainable energy services. To this end GSMA's Mobile for Development Utilities division is currently seeking to better understand and evaluate the potential impact, applications, use cases, benefits and costs of distributed ledgers for energy service companies and customers, with the goal of leveraging its strategic partnership with the Department for International Development to resource future trials and to catalyse private sector investment. Working in partnership with the GSMA's Mobile for Development Utilities programme and ElectriCChain, developers of the SolarCoin Blockchain, this 24 month research project brings together a team of electrical and electronic engineers, human-computer interaction specialists, and social anthropologists to explore the potential for distributed ledger technologies to accelerate access to off grid solar energy in Sub-Saharan Africa by delinking current business models from existing mobile money payment infrastructures and third parties, creating new models for incentivising and rewarding the installation of off grid solar, and developing new peer-to-peer business models

13/11/18