South Africa’s Sinan Energy launches carbon tokenization blockchain platform

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A South African blockchain startup has launched a carbon tokenization blockchain platform which aims to spark the rise of renewable energy in the country. Sinan Energy is targeting an initial output of over 100 megawatts of power, with the project to be funded by the sale of tokenized carbon credits.

Sinan claims to have signed power purchase agreements with several key players and obtained the required permits to build and operate plants that will produce a total capacity of at least 100MW, Smart Energy reports. Construction is scheduled to kick off this month.

Based in Bryanston, South Africa, the company plans on building the power plants in the Northern Cape of the country in what it calls Innovation Implementation Zones.

Sinan plans on having two revenue streams—one from the sale of the energy and the other from the carbon credits. “Having two revenue streams means Sinan can deploy new renewable energy technologies sooner than others and accelerate their commercialization and mass deployment,” it says.

On why it turned to blockchain, the company says that the technology “enables it to tokenize, record and verify carbon credits that are generated from its own plants. This allows it to achieve international certification and hence trade carbon credits on global carbon markets.”

Carbon credits have become a lucrative line of business as the fight against climate change takes shape. One study predicts that this market will hit $6.7 billion by the end of this year, with Bloomberg analysts predicting it will spike by 3,000% to hit $190 billion by the end of 2030 as stricter rules come into effect globally.

Blockchain technology has continued to take prominence in the energy sector, with peer-to-peer energy trading offering a much better way for individuals, known as prosumers (producers/consumers), to sell off some of the extra energy they produce. Blockchain helps keep track of the transactions, and in most cases, smart contracts are deployed to automate payments between the parties, which usually tend to be in a digital currency.

Only a massively scaling blockchain network can be integrated into such a system, and Bitcoin SV, with its unbounded blocks, real-time transactions, and cheap fees, is the undisputed fit for this budding industry.

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