News Digest Item
02 May 2018

Germany must act to use blockchain’s potential for energy transition – opinion

Handelsblatt

Blockchain technology is one of the few digital developments in recent years in which Germany has an advantage, and it could be a decisive tool for pushing the energy transition’s digitalisation, energy management researcher Jens Strüker writes in a guest commentary for Handelsblatt. The country’s energy market digitalisation law so far has largely failed its objective and “the German Energiewende still is an analogue development”, Strüker says. While Germany has become “a blockchain hot spot in the field of energy”, it still lacks an adequate legal framework and inertia in larger companies , causing the technology’s spread to be slower than necessary, Strüker argues. Policymakers should quickly expand blockchain trials and encourage on-the-job training to prevent Germany from losing its edge in blockchain technology, he writes.

Read the commentary in German here (paywall). 

For background, read the CLEW factsheet Blockchain- the next revolution in the energy sector?

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