Solar microgrid to launch in the heart of coal country

Dairy farmers in the heart of Victorian coal country will soon be able to trade solar power using blockchain processes.

The trial can help turn dairy farms into mini-power plants. 

A virtual microgrid will be created in the the Latrobe Valley, exchanging energy generated from 200 Gippsland dairy farmers, 20 businesses and 150 households, powered by a decentralised, peer-to-peer blockchain energy trading platform called Exergy.

Ivor Frischknecht, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's chief executive, said the trial was the first step in transitioning the agricultural region - near the state’s coal-fired power stations - to renewable power. It would be the first major trial of a blockchain-based virtual microgrid in Australia.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from WA today - "Solar microgrid to launch in the heart of coal country.”