Diverse distributed renewable energy trading paradigms: a business model review

Abstract

There are diverse distributed Renewable Energy (RE) trading business models (BM) which enable consumer-prosumer/generator energy trading; however, their efficiency and effectiveness in creating a stable RE market with enhanced economic values are not properly investigated. This paper intends to investigate the impact of diverse distributed RE trading paradigms on creating a stable RE market with enhanced economic values for multiple stakeholders. A comprehensive literature review is carried out to identify different distributed RE trading BMs and the “business model canvas” is used to analyze their characteristics. The findings identified that the ICT-based peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed RE trading has more technical, economic, and social benefits in comparison to other BMs. With the use of ICT applications such as blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart distribution applications, P2P distributed RE trading provides a unique service environment consisting of preference-based trading, distributed market control, automated trading, and customer involvement in price determination.

Keywords:

• Business model
• consumers
• distributed renewable energy
• economic values
• peer-to-peer trading
• prosumers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).