Challenges of blockchain in new generation energy systems and future outlooks

Recently, the blockchain technology has attracted widespread attention due to its advantageous features, e.g., decentralization, transparency, traceability, and immutability. To make full use of renewable energy resources, new generation energy systems advocate the deep integration of information technology in real-world energy projects, among which blockchain has become one of the most used technologies. However, with the continuous development of related studies and projects, blockchain has begun to expose more and more limitations. As a result, the application of energy blockchain, i.e., blockchain applied in energy systems, is facing various challenges caused by these limitations. This paper briefly reviews popular application scenarios of energy blockchain, analyzes generic limitations of blockchain and their impacts on energy systems, and looks into possible directions that could deal with these limitations for future blockchain-based energy systems. We argue that blockchain is not a panacea for energy systems because blockchain's component technologies have their own generic issues, and that the application of energy blockchain should be accompanied with improvement measures that conform to practical requirements of energy systems. As far as we know, this paper is one of the few works that deeply analyze the shortcomings of the blockchain technology and potential countermeasures in the energy field.