Key Takeaways
- Power is no longer a commodity. A kilowatt-hour is now defined by when, where, and how it’s generated — not just by cost. Context and verification determine value.
- Renewables cut cost, not value. Solar and wind LCOE have fallen ~90% since 2010, yet value capture has shifted to carbon premiums, grid services, and tokenised yield.
-
Price ≠ Value.
Retail electricity averages $0.17–0.19/kWh, but wholesale prices have dropped ~20% YoY (IEA 2025).
Markets are moving from flat tariffs to spatiotemporal pricing. -
Data makes energy measurable — and tradeable.
Over 75 B IoT devices (by 2027) feed real-time generation data.
Verified kWh = higher market premium and eligibility for tokenisation. - Decentralisation turns users into owners.
Distributed grids reward verified generation and flexibility.
Each 1% solar increase cuts its value factor ~4 pts without coordination (Stiewe 2024). Coordinated networks preserve yield. - Tokenisation makes electricity liquid.
Energy credits and verified kWh claims could exceed $800 B TAM by 2030 (BloombergNEF).
For decades, a kilowatt-hour (kWh) was just a unit of consumption, priced, billed, and largely forgotten.
Today, that unit is being repriced. Driven by three converging forces: renewables, data, and decentralisation. The value of electricity is no longer determined solely by production cost. It is now defined by context: when it’s generated, where it’s consumed, and whether it can be verified, tokenised, and traded.
Welcome to the Great Energy Repricing, where a kilowatt-hour is not merely a commodity but an asset class.
Renewables Have Collapsed the Cost of Generation
Data Point:
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), global renewable power capacity must triple to 11,000 GW by 2030, and we are already halfway there. Meanwhile, the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for solar and wind has dropped by nearly 90% since 2010, reaching as low as $0.03 per kWh in markets such as Chile and Morocco.
Interpretation:
Electricity generation has never been cheaper, but cheaper generation does not mean lower value. As the cost floor falls, new forms of value capture emerge: carbon attributes, verified provenance, grid services, and tokenised yield streams.
This is closely linked to renewable energy adoption barriers and solutions, where ReNRG explores real-world adoption challenges and how they are overcome.
Retail Prices and Wholesale Reality Are Decoupling
In 2025, the average U.S. residential electricity price stands at $0.17-0.19 per kWh, while wholesale prices in major regions have fallen by nearly 20 percent year over year (IEA Electricity 2025 Report).
Why the gap?
Because the “price” of power increasingly depends on when and where it is available. A kilowatt-hour at 2 p.m. in Texas (solar surplus) does not hold the same value as one at 7 p.m. in Mumbai (peak demand).
The energy system is shifting from a flat tariff model to a spatiotemporal market, where each kWh carries its own risk, carbon, and yield profile.
Data Is Turning Energy Into an Information Market
The world now runs on billions of IoT sensors measuring current, voltage, temperature, and output across solar, wind, and grid infrastructure.
By 2027, over 75 billion IoT devices will be active globally (IDC, 2024).
This sensory web has made the physical world machine-readable. Every inverter, panel, and meter becomes a data node, feeding a live energy map that AI can optimise and blockchain can verify.
In verified data lies the next premium:
- A green, timestamped, traceable kWh earns more than an anonymous one.
- Proof of generation enables tokenisation and settlement.
- Real-time telemetry allows dynamic pricing and pre-emptive load balancing.
Decentralisation Rewrites Ownership and Coordination
Traditional grids were top-down: utilities produced, consumers paid. Decentralisation flips that logic.
Now, prosumers (homes, SMEs, and energy nodes), own or lease small-scale generation, storage, and EV chargers. Each contributes not only electrons but also data and flexibility to the system.
In decentralised energy networks (DePINs), every verified contribution, such as producing, storing, balancing, can be rewarded automatically.
This is where energy stops being infrastructure and starts behaving like programmable capital.
Data Insight:
Each 1% increase in solar share in Europe reduces the “value factor” of solar by approximately 4 points unless offset by storage and flexible coordination (Stiewe C. et al., 2024).
Translation: Decentralisation without coordination erodes value, while decentralisation with coordination multiplies it.
The Economics of a Repriced KWh
The modern kWh is no longer a flat commodity. Its value is multidimensional.
| Factor | Effect on Value | Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Time of generation |
Scarcity pricing |
Night-time solar offset earns premium |
|
Location |
Grid congestion |
Energy near load centres earns higher value |
|
Verification |
Provenance premium |
Audited green power is worth more than a generic mix |
|
Flexibility services |
Added yield |
Load-shifting and storage earn rewards |
|
Ownership |
Network capture |
Tokenised nodes earn ongoing yield |
What we are witnessing is a shift from volume to verified value. A kilowatt-hour is no longer just produced and sold; it is proven, tokenised, and yield-bearing.
Financialisation: The kWh Becomes a Digital Asset
If data makes energy verifiable and decentralisation makes it ownable, financialisation makes it liquid.
The tokenisation total addressable market (TAM) for real-world electricity credits, RECs, and solar claims is projected to exceed $800 billion by 2030.
In this model:
- Verified kWh → RE NFT → NRG Token → Market Yield
- Energy devices become yield instruments
- Grid participation becomes an income stream, not a utility bill
For investors, the key question shifts from “How much energy is produced?” to “How verifiable and monetisable is each unit?”
The Bigger Picture: From Commodity to Intelligence
As renewables, data, and decentralisation converge, electricity is being repriced along informational and behavioural lines. The grid is learning, adapting, and rewarding a living infrastructure. The Great Energy Repricing is about energy becoming smarter, and therefore, more valuable.
FAQs
The Great Energy Repricing refers to the transformation of the value of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) driven by renewable energy adoption, data integration, and decentralisation. Electricity is no longer priced solely by production cost but by context, verification, and flexibility.
Renewables have drastically lowered generation costs. However, the value of electricity is increasingly defined by factors such as location, time of production, verification, and flexibility services rather than just production price.
Data from IoT devices and smart grids makes energy machine-readable, enabling real-time verification, dynamic pricing, and tokenisation. Verified and traceable electricity carries a premium in financialised energy markets.
Decentralisation allows prosumers to produce, store, and trade electricity independently. Verified contributions are rewarded automatically, transforming energy from a commodity into programmable capital with monetisable value.
Yes. Through verification, tokenisation, and decentralised coordination, each kilowatt-hour can be represented as a digital asset or token, generating market yield and allowing grid participation to become an income stream rather than a simple utility expense.
