Countries like Algeria in the Maghreb region are looking to renewable energy from the sun to help power businesses and households through modernized energy use.

A recent CleanTechnica article shows the government aiming for 13.5 gigawatts of solar power by 2030. As the leading natural gas producer in the region, Algeria's choice is perhaps a bit surprising, but in terms of global trends, it's in line with the majority of national plans for proactive modernization.

Just months ago, CleanTechnica released a report showing the Algerian government will pursue a new plan to set up 4,000 megawatts of solar within the country. These large power projects involve significant infrastructure and equipment use. They require strategy, and they're also part of more complex decisions and situations that show how today's energy models are changing along with the financial models that support them.

Kurt Watkins of the legal firm Scarinci and Hollenbeck LLC  in North Arlington, New Jersey specializes in blockchain and related technologies.

“I've seen a few pilots,” Watkins told Maghreb News Wire, describing situations where blockchain is used in the handling of solar electric generation.

Watkins explained that solar generation is a very distributed model.

“You can slap a solar panel anywhere,” he said.

To keep track of the different energy contributions made by solar panels, and provide payments to owners, Watkins said a blockchain ledger can be useful in managing this kind of complex financial system. It's also possible, he said, for blockchain to help government to get better transparency for economic indicators, which can help to balance national economies.

Where challenges still exist, he said, are in the enterprise realm, where transparency isn’t always a good thing.

Watkins described situations where blockchain systems might compile a range of vendor contract prices that would be immediately visible to all stakeholders.

“Everyone could see everyone else’s prices,” Watkins said.

Watkins said companies like IBM are working on these types of challenges to build some privacy models into ledger systems that were made to make economics clearer and more transparent.

Meanwhile, in the Maghreb, blockchain and related technologies have the potential to help with solar generation and other kinds of modernization, as countries like Algeria work to implement new national systems and enhance what their governments offer to residents.