Brooklyn Microgrid World’s First Peer-to-Peer, Blockchain Energy Transaction

The future in peer-to-peer consumer energy exchange is here.

Lawrence Orsini, president and founder of Lo3 energy in front of a rooftop solar panel installation on President St. in Brooklyn, N.Y. Courtesy of Lawrence Orsini

NEW YORK—The future in peer-to-peer consumer energy exchange is here. The world’s first small-scale power grid, a microgrid, to use consumer blockchain transaction (think Bitcoin) has begun in New York.

The first paid energy transaction between two individuals happened on April 11, on President Street, Brooklyn, where long-term resident and social justice activist Eric Fruman sold excess renewable energy from his solar rooftop installation to ex-Energy Star National Director Bob Sauchelli. This was the beginning of a relationship between five homes on one side of President Street, producing energy and selling their excess, to five homes on the other side.

Bitcoin is to blockchain like Kleenex is to tissue.

— Lawrence Orsini, founder and president, LO3 Energy