Performance Evaluation of a Distributed Ledger-Based Platform for Renewable Energy Trading

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain-based energy trading solutions are often labeled as resource-hungry, excessive power consumers which consequently create a significant carbon footprint. Using this approach to energy trading, without simultaneously minimizing energy consumption, defeats the purpose of using such trading solutions to encourage renewable energy production and may even cancel out any ecological benefits. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to create a DLT-based energy trading system which provides security, transparency, autonomy, scalability, and decentralization, provided by using a DLT, but with significantly lower penalties than other previously known solutions. This is best illustrated through the fact that the carbon footprint per transaction of the solution presented in this paper is 0.19 grams of $CO_{2}$ compared to 20 grams of $CO_{2}$ created by single transaction of similar complexity on the Ethereum blockchain. This makes per-transaction carbon footprint of our system approximate 100 times smaller than that of the most commonly used Ethereum blockchain. We present the architecture and features of the proposed platform, as well as a thorough analysis of its performance, including power consumption and estimated carbon footprint. All experiments are done on a dedicated Beowulf cluster comprised of general-purpose computers. The cluster mimics a microgrid environment and presents a testing ground for real-world performance and power consumption analysis of a system used for trading energy predominantly produced from prosumers and their renewable sources.