I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest peer-reviewed article in MDPI Sustainability, co-authored with Prof. Dr. Horst Treiblmaier:
Research Focus
The rapid global expansion of distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems has created new opportunities for sustainable energy generation. However, this shift also raises critical challenges:
Data integrity and transparency in measuring solar energy output
Tamper resistance in environmental and carbon reporting
Scalability and efficiency of digital infrastructures in IoT environments
Traditional logging systems—whether local-only or cloud-based—lack end-to-end verifiability and are vulnerable to data manipulation, insider threats, or single points of failure. At the same time, blockchain solutions often face criticism for high resource use and limited practicality on low-power edge devices.
This study was designed to bridge this gap by developing and empirically validating a blockchain-secured, tamper-evident energy logger tailored for resource-constrained IoT systems.
Research Design and Methodology
Our work follows the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, focusing on iterative prototyping, evaluation, and validation.
System Features:
Built on a Raspberry Pi 4B equipped with an INA219 sensor
Implemented SHA-256 cryptographic chain hashing for every sensor log
Used Merkle tree batching for scalable proof aggregation
Applied threshold-triggered blockchain anchoring to Ethereum (Sepolia testnet)
Integrated automatic rollover and retry mechanisms to ensure no data loss
Deployment:
Continuous operation for 135 hours (5.6 days)
Over 10,268 solar energy records collected
130 Merkle-batched submissions successfully anchored to blockchain
Evaluation Parameters:
Operational overhead (CPU, RAM, temperature, network)
Reliability under connectivity disruptions
Cost and carbon footprint benchmarking against alternative models
Comparative analysis with local-only and cloud-based loggers
Research Key Results
Tamper-Evidence and Auditability
All 130 blockchain submissions were verified successfully using an independent Merkle verifier tool.
Any manipulation of raw logs (insertion, deletion, reordering) immediately invalidated proofs.
Established end-to-end integrity for solar energy data.
System Resource Efficiency
Average CPU load: 0.01%
RAM usage: ~100 MB
Device temperature: ≤ 43.8 °C
Negligible network overhead except during brief blockchain submissions
Sustainability Assessment
Blockchain logging energy overhead: 0.00063% of Austria’s annual PV output
Carbon impact at national scale (250,000 PV systems): ~5.2 tCO₂/year
Transaction cost sensitivity strongly influenced by Ethereum gas price but remains manageable with batching
Comparative Benchmarking
Outperformed local-only and cloud loggers in auditability and resilience.
Avoided scalability bottlenecks typical of continuous on-chain logging approaches.
Compatible with ESG reporting, renewable energy certification, and regulatory compliance frameworks.
Broader Implications of this Blockchain Research
This research provides the first hardware-validated, reproducible framework for blockchain-based solar energy logging, advancing both theory and practice in:
Renewable Energy Certification (RECs): Automating carbon and energy accounting
ESG and Sustainability Reporting: Enabling verifiable digital audit trails
Peer-to-Peer Energy Markets: Supporting transparent settlement and fraud prevention
Smart Grid and IoT Integration: Facilitating scalable, low-overhead edge deployments
The logger demonstrates that blockchain and sustainability are not contradictory—when carefully designed, blockchain systems can enhance trust and accountability while maintaining minimal environmental impact.
Where to Read the Full Paper
If you're interested, the full paper is available on MDPI SUSTAINABILITY under the following citation:
Vasheghani Farahani, J., & Treiblmaier, H. (2025). A Sustainability Assessment of a Blockchain-Secured Solar Energy Logger for Edge IoT Environments. Sustainability, 17(17), 8063. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17178063
Final Thoughts
This publication represents a step toward verifiable, tamper-resistant, and sustainable digital infrastructures for renewable energy systems. I welcome collaborations and discussions on extending this framework to broader applications in IoT, blockchain, and climate technology.