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Bloomberg
A Singapore startup is seeking to connect potential buyers and sellers of solar power directly.
Electrify Pte’s platform lets owners of homes and businesses bid and offer rates for specific amounts of electricity. By selling directly to users rather than the grid, solar owners can get more money for their power, while consumers avoid paying a premium for renewable energy.
The platform underscores how cheap solar, with its ability to be installed just about anywhere with a roof, is challenging the decades-old model of power grids that deliver electricity one way from plants to homes. It’s also allowing smaller players to join massive utilities in profiting from differences in electricity prices.
“Power grids are old and designed for centralised generation, but that’s changing,†Martin Lim, the chief executive officer of Electrify, said in an interview.
Electrify’s marketplace can benefit both those with solar roofs as well as people and businesses who want to support green energy, Lim said. The company is testing the platform with a one-year pilot program in Singapore involving 100 people and businesses.
Homes and businesses in Singapore that have rooftop solar sets that produce excess power can currently sell it back into the grid at near wholesale prices, which is usually well below the retail price most customers pay for their electricity.