How blockchain is helping Africans buy and sell electricity
By Our Correspondent
In many parts of Africa, unreliable electricity and high power costs remain an obstacle to development. Against this backdrop, blockchain, the same technology behind cryptocurrencies, is gaining traction as a means to reshape how electricity is traded, financed and shared. Rather than being just a fintech novelty, blockchain is proving to be a practical, locally driven tool for innovation in energy markets.
A groundbreaking model: RENEX in Namibia
One of the most advanced examples in Africa is RENEX, a Namibian company creating a peer-to-peer solar electricity trading platform for industrial and commercial users. RENEX describes itself as a “renewable energy trader … specialising in demand‑side aggregation … to trade low‑carbon power and renewable energy certificates.”
Johannes Andreas, a systems analyst working on the project, explains: “the platform will provide consumers with access to more competitive electricity tariffs, and asset owners with … alternative revenue streams.”
Namibia is a particularly promising market for such innovation: it has one of the highest average solar energy potentials in the world, yet also some of the highest electricity costs in southern Africa. By tokenising energy and enabling trade among producers and users, RENEX hopes to unlock value that traditionally remains trapped in centrally run power systems.
Innovation meets policy
In South Africa, Growthpoint Properties is rolling out an open blockchain-enabled platform for trading renewable energy certificates (RECs), in partnership with an energy-tech company called Fuel Switch. Under the scheme, every megawatt-hour of clean electricity delivered to participating premises (for instance, office buildings in Sandton) generates a REC. These certificates are recorded on blockchain, linked to their actual source generation, and can be held in digital wallets or traded.
Gideon Maasz, COO of Fuel Switch, emphasises that “every REC is verifiable, tradeable and audit-ready, fully aligned with evolving IFRS sustainability reporting standards.” Meanwhile Werner van Antwerpen, Head of Corporate Advisory for Growthpoint, says the platform is “opening the green energy market to businesses of all sizes, creating measurable environmental impact and generating real financial value.”
This is not just about trading: blockchain provides strong provenance. Because each REC is tied to its origin, buyers (such as large firms) can credibly claim that their electricity comes from verifiable renewable sources.
Local innovation
Beyond trading, there is a growing ecosystem of capacity‑building in Africa around blockchain in energy. For example, Skills for Africa, a training provider, runs a “Blockchain Technology for Energy Trading” course in Kenya. The course targets energy traders, IT professionals, regulatory staff and others, teaching practical skills such as distributed ledger design, smart contract development, tokenisation of energy assets, and building peer-to-peer trading platforms.
The fact that such training exists, and in Nairobi, suggests not only demand but also local ambition: Africans want to build, run and regulate blockchain energy systems, not simply import them.
Challenges from within
Despite innovation, there are persistent structural challenges. Green Building Africa notes that while blockchain offers secure data management, real‑time transaction processing and lower costs, regulatory inertia remains a key barrier: “most countries in Africa … do not allow peer to peer selling by law.”
This regulatory dynamic can limit how freely peer-to-peer energy platforms evolve. In the RENEX case, for example, the company must navigate Namibia’s power market rules while building a business model that relies on decentralised trading.
Beyond regulation, there is also the challenge of infrastructure: to trade energy at scale, you need smart meters, robust connectivity, and distributed generation assets — items that are unevenly distributed across the continent.
Learning from global best practice
To understand how these African projects fit into wider trends, one can look at global peer‑to‑peer energy platforms. For instance, SynergyGrids, a blockchain-based microgrid system described in academic literature, uses smart contracts and a pricing model that considers distance, supply and demand to reduce costs for prosumers and consumers.
Another relevant framework comes from ELECTRICA, a journal article by Nigerian engineers analysing the convergence of blockchain, smart microgrids and energy markets. The authors show how blockchain can enable peer-to-peer energy trading in an efficient way, even in constrained power systems.
These studies offer valuable lessons: the pricing mechanisms, governance structures and contract designs used in peer‑to‑peer models elsewhere can inform how African projects scale responsibly.
Why African entrepreneurs are key to impact
The emerging African initiatives show that blockchain energy trading is not a pipe dream; it is being built by local teams, for local contexts. Here are some of the most important roles:
- Trading platforms like RENEX demonstrate that commercial and industrial energy users can access more competitive tariffs, while solar asset owners can monetize surplus power.
- Certificate exchanges (RECs) like the Fuel Switch platform in South Africa make carbon‑reporting and sustainability accounting more rigorous and accessible.
- Local training efforts (such as in Kenya) ensure that the continent is not merely a consumer of blockchain technology, but a producer: regulators, developers and system operators can learn and lead.
By growing this ecosystem, African entrepreneurs can help align blockchain innovation with pressing on‑the‑ground challenges: energy poverty, climate risk, and the lack of trust in traditional utilities.
Risks, trade‑offs and what it will take to scale
For these models to scale, several issues must be addressed:
- Regulation. Governments must update or introduce legal frameworks that permit peer-to-peer energy sales, independent trading platforms and blockchain‑based certificate trading.
- Infrastructure. Smart meters, reliable internet and distributed energy resources are prerequisites for a functioning blockchain energy system. Without them, token trading remains theoretical.
- Awareness and trust. Communities and businesses must trust the system. Transparent blockchain platforms help, but adoption will depend on education, usability and clear economic benefits.
- Governance. Blockchain can decentralise trading, but someone must govern the system: define token rules, manage disputes, ensure security and monitor compliance.
A possible future
Imagine a Kenyan town or a Namibian suburb in 2030 where:
- Solar rooftops are common, and households generate more energy than they need.
- A local blockchain platform records production, consumption and trades in real time.
- Consumers buy power from neighbours; smart contracts settle payments automatically.
- Large and small enterprises trade renewable certificates on the same platform, not only reducing their carbon footprint but also creating new revenue opportunities for prosumers.
- Regulators oversee the system through transparent dashboards while local entrepreneurs run trading and certificate systems.
In that scenario, energy is not just delivered – it is owned, traded, and valued by the people who produce and use it.
Conclusion
Blockchain in energy is not a silver bullet – it cannot, on its own, solve the infrastructure deficits or regulatory inertia that still hamper many African power systems. However, when used thoughtfully, it offers a way to reimagine electricity as a participatory, localised market.
Thanks to innovators like RENEX in Namibia and Fuel Switch / Growthpoint in South Africa, and thanks to training providers such as Skills for Africa in Kenya, blockchain-based energy trading is being built by Africans, for Africans. If regulatory reforms, infrastructure investments and education keep pace, these early projects could scale, unlocking clean power, new income streams, and greater trust in how electricity is delivered.
