Abu Dhabi Cryptocurrency: ACWA Power to adopt SolarCoin

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Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power has become the first major energy company to adopt SolarCoin. The cryptocurrency rewards solar power generation with digital money, and could mark a shift in the production of clean energy. Nawied Jabarkhyl reports.

Few places on Earth have as much sunshine as the Middle East. And one company here is looking to really capitalise on the sun's potential. ACWA Power says it'll be the first large-scale utility firm to start collecting the cryptocurrency SolarCoin for the energy it produces.

PADDY PADMANATHAN, PRESIDENT & CEO ACWA POWER "We believe it will propagate or it'll accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, because it's a genuine, additional reward for somebody to generate a megawatt-hour of electricity."

Like Bitcoin, SolarCoin is an electronic currency. Its current value is about $1.2 each and there are almost 39 million of them in circulation.

NAWIED JABARKHYL ABU DHABI "For firms like ACWA Power, schemes like SolarCoin could be doubly profitable. They can still sell the energy they produce on traditional markets and can also trade that same resource for virtual currency."

It may seem like a no-brainer then, but is this a case of companies just being greedy?

PADDY PADMANATHAN, PRESIDENT & CEO ACWA POWER "We have internally committed straight away that whatever value that we generate out of this activity, it will go directly to more Corporate Social Responsibility, community development activity, capacity development and so on and so forth."

As governments and central banks around the world struggle to make sense of virtual currencies, it's perhaps unsurprising that businesses are taking advantage of them. One of the co-founders of SolarCoin thinks the growth of similar schemes is somewhat inevitable, given the rapid rise of renewables.

NICK GOGERTY, CEO/CO-FOUNDER SOLARCOIN FOUNDATION "You'll see more creativity and understanding, and experimentation. The barriers to entry to engage in the market and participate and innovate are fairly low."

According to the International Energy Agency, renewable electricity will grow worldwide by almost 45% by 2022. And solar is by far the leading source of clean energy growth. That suggests a promising future for SolarCoin, and the companies profiting from its use. Nawied Jabarkhyl, CGTN, Abu Dhabi.