Internet of Energy will change how energy is generated, transported and financed

The Internet of Energy will enable the complex coordination between suppliers and users to facilitate future energy generation, transportation and financing, said experts at a forum on Sunday.

With the Internet of Energy, individual buildings can be turned into micro power stations, said Jeremy Rifkin, an American economic and social theorist, at E.IF Energy Internet Forum in Beijing.

The E.IF forum aims at building a cross-sector platform for the Internet of Energy that connects new energy vehicle, intelligent home appliance and architectural energy.

Unmanned vehicles, GPS-guided transport and car sharing will eventually eliminate 80 percent of cars on the road. The remaining cars will be powered by electricity and fuel cell from renewable energy, said Rifkin.

Kevin Kelly, editor of the American magazine Wire, affirmed his belief that all energy will be traded and used online in the future though at the moment only 5 percent of energy has been connected to the Internet.

Kelly said that only one quarter of the energy at the moment power human beings directly.

"For instance, we have to open the cars and start the engine manually before the vehicle could move us around. In the future, there will be more direct use of energy that will boost the efficiency," he said.

Cao Yin, chief energy analyst of Cinda Securities Co Ltd, said that energy must make itself easier through the Internet.

According to Cao, managing the complex relations among the consumer, manufacturer, coordinator and investor is very complicated.

"The solution to the complicated relations is the business model of the Internet that simplifies the network of the stakeholders and minimize the marginal cost," said Cao.

Shao Ping, president of Ping An Bank Co Ltd, said that his company has shown great interest in exploring new ways to finance bulk commodity enterprise through the Internet. It has established a department dedicated to energy and mineral financing in 2014.

"Once the network among the supplier, coordinator, distributors and the users has been built, the Internet can do automatic analytical work, which will make financing a lot more accurate," said Shao.