The Scope of Traditional and Decentralised Energy Systems
What we call “traditional energy” today was once the pinnacle of innovation back in the 19th century. At that time, it was the ideal scalable system to ensure gradual global energy access. It has now been 142 years since Thomas Edison launched the first commercial power station and yet, almost one billion people live without electricity in 2024.
Reflecting on the history of traditional energy systems and the industrial needs at the time of its inception, I could understand the need for energy systems to be centralised — Government bodies needed to regulate energy generation and distribution to support factories; fossil fuels were relatively cheaper; and electricity was an innovative technology.
In the long run, this implied four things for the general public:
We had no control over the entire energy transmission process.
We mostly depended on fossil fuels and hence contributed in magnitude to climate change.
We relied on centralised energy systems and experienced large scale outages.
We paid more to maintain large scale power plants.
Decentralised energy, on the other hand, has the potential to eliminate the 21st century problems like climate change, unequal energy access, resource depletion, environmental degradation, etc. Decentralised energy transforms energy generation and consumption in a way that increases accessibility, reliability, and sustainability. The main pillars here being “reliable”, “sustainable”, and “accessible”.
Traditional Energy and Its Challenges
Traditional energy involves the typical operation mode of energy generation and distribution that is seen in many countries today. In such systems, responsibilities like power generation and electricity distribution are the responsibilities of a single authority (e.g the government), the source of energy is carbon-based fuels, and the entire energy operation is carried out with little to no input from energy consumers.
Traditional energy had its benefits. Through the rise of traditional energy, electricity became a household utility and this phase was somewhat cost-effective. However, it came at a cost to the health of the planet. Traditional energy relies mostly on fossil fuels, which is the single largest source of carbon emissions. Scientists have discovered that the continuous use of fossil fuels up until 2050 would result in catastrophic environmental issues affecting food production, sea levels, and weather events all over the world.
In the case of developing regions, traditional energy failed. Half of the African population still live without access to electricity and the other half struggle with unreliable electricity. Corruption-infested governments benefit from the centralised nature of traditional energy and this has contributed largely to the increasing energy poverty in developing regions.
In addition to climate change and increasing energy poverty, we now face various energy-centred problems that traditional energy systems can’t be scaled to resolve them. Therefore, we need to turn to a decentralised, sustainable means of generating, distributing, and consuming energy.
Understanding Decentralised Energy
Decentralised energy involves the use of renewable energy powered grids to generate and distribute electricity at a smaller scale. With decentralised energy, towns and cities could become self-sufficient by generating their own electricity using small energy grids.
Decentralised energy is still a developing concept with various models – practicals and theories. The practical models are being used in developed regions around the world and the theoretical models are still in development. For instance, in some cities in the US, energy consumers that own solar panels can sell their excess energy to the national grid. And when they need to, they can buy energy from the national grid. This 2-way grid concept, known as net metering, allows energy consumers to play a part in generating energy for the national grid. This instance is only a partial application of decentralised energy. Most regions have not fully embraced decentralised energy yet and only apply it to a small extent – which is a good sign of change.
The Potential of Decentralised Energy
The beauty of decentralised energy is that it aims to compensate for the failures of traditional energy. Simply put: where traditional energy failed, decentralised energy would not.
The world is transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy so as to avoid foreseen uninhabitable conditions. This transition, however, is taking so much time that we may not meet set goals by the United Nations that assures global habitable conditions. While developing regions are scrambling to achieve net zero emission, the Global South is still struggling to provide reliable energy to its population. In some rural areas, women still use coal to cook and households are powered by petrol generators. Rather than scaling centralised national grids to power an entire country with renewable energy, we should focus on fostering decentralised energy generation. This approach involves creating small networks of interconnected renewable energy mini-grids in towns, cities, and villages that enables communities to buy and sell electricity directly from one another.
Instead of scaling national grids to meet renewable energy standards, developed regions should be empowering their cities and smaller communities to generate their own electricity.
Instead of awarding renewable energy grants to national governments in developing regions, international organisations should foster decentralised energy by awarding these grants to local communities. In decentralised energy networks, everyone is equally responsible for their energy generation and distribution.
Ultimately, decentralised energy could be the missing key that helps scale renewable energy, both in advanced countries and developing countries. Additionally, it could play a vital part in eliminating energy poverty at a faster rate in the Global South.
M3tering Protocol’s Mission to Foster Decentralised Energy
In the race to global net zero emissions, the Global South lags due to the heavy costs related with switching to renewable energy. M3tering protocol’s mission in the Global South is to help initiate an economy that rewards and finances the development of renewable energy projects. The native token, Solaxy (SLX), derives its value from the network of solar energy projects and the thousands of facilitated transactions on the protocol. The combined effect affects the value of Solaxy (SLX) tokens, which is used as a reward for solar energy providers in the Global South. You can read more about how Solaxy (SLX) tokens and its value approach in the white paper.
If our mission resonates with you, then get involved with the change we are making in the Global South. Join our community of energy providers and solar enthusiasts in weekly community calls and contribute to the progress of the protocol.
Dedication
This article is dedicated to Izzy/Decentralizedceo, a friend we recently lost and looked up to so much. Please, kindly send love to Izzy’s family by following the Twitter post.
George E
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