A New Blockchain Digital MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) Architecture for Existing Building Energy Performance

Abstract

The widespread and massive effects of climate are now inevitable, and action must be taken by all sectors to mitigate their contributions to its impacts. The building sector accounts for about 40% of global energy consumption and 30% of GHG emissions. This sector must reduce its energy consumption by at least 50% by shifting to hyper-efficient systems and renewable energy to meet the climate change mitigation goal. Certified green buildings are responsible for about 40% of the office markets in the U. S. and utilize the types of strategies that should be implemented by all new construction and major renovations. Certified green buildings, although highly effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, are generally considered to be an expensive solution to this problem. There is excellent potential for the construction sector to employ a blockchain framework of measurement, report, and verification (MRV) towards building energy performance (BEP) to enable certified green buildings to earn carbon credits based on their exceptional energy performance. Blockchain technology eliminates the need for intermediaries to validate the data and builds up a reliable, immutable, traceable energy monitoring system. The goal of this paper is to present a new blockchain digital MRV architecture for existing BEP and a prototype of its application.