Daylight secures $9M funding for distributed energy, testnet launch

Daylight Protocol has secured $9 million in a funding round led by a16z Crypto, with participation from Framework Ventures. The funds will support the platform’s development for distributed energy devices. 

The protocol wants to tackle the growing demand for electricity with decentralized energy generation. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand will increase by 3.4% from 2024 through 2026, influenced by the rising adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps and the expansion of data centers.

“The IEA estimates we need $600 billion of annual new grid investments to support net zero and energy security targets,” Daylight co-founder and CEO Jason Badeaux told Cointelegraph. According to him, distributed energy resources could free up critical energy capacity on existing grids without trillions of dollars of new infrastructure.

Daylight’s testnet went live on July 31, enabling users to connect distributed energy devices to its mobile app and receive rewards. Some of the devices that can be plugged in by users are smart thermostats, solar inverters, batteries, electric vehicles and chargers and energy monitors.

The protocol’s ecosystem also includes an onchain platform for distributed energy capacity and energy data. It also has a marketplace for standardized distributed energy upgrades for homeowners and small businesses. The startup noted in a statement:

“Blockchains give us tools to build new economies. Unified asset ledgers, global liquidity, and peer-to-peer transactions are powerful primitives that now allow startups to compete with governments in the implementation of novel economic systems.”

The company’s marketplace is currently active in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with Texas and California opening soon. “The electron is the most important commodity of the 21st century,” noted Daylight. “We need a new approach to meet the boom in demand while ensuring reliability.”

Daylight’s funding round also saw participation from existing investors Lerer Hippeau, Lattice Fund and Escape Velocity.

Over the past few years, energy grid operators have been exploring blockchain solutions to manage decentralized energy resources. In Europe, companies like Energy Web and Stedin are working on systems that use blockchain and decentralized identifiers for digital identities for energy assets, thus allowing customer-owned assets to balance energy grids.

Another reliable energy source tied to blockchain technology is Bitcoin (BTC) miners. These miners can respond in real time to demand spikes and power down operations quickly. This approach turns Bitcoin mining facilities into flexible energy consumers that can effectively balance supply and demand fluctuations.