Estudio Garrido

Argentinian law firm Estudio Garrido has advised Space AI, a technology company with operations in the US, Mexico and Israel, on the creation of a Blockchain-based network providing affordable, locally produced renewable energy and energy services at scale within a disadvantaged community in California.

The project will be developed by Space AI in collaboration with The Energy Coalition and Community Electricity, in collaboration with University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a consortium of best-of-breed partners, which have been awarded a $9 million grant from the California Energy Commission.

The Energy Coalition is a California-based non-profit with over 45 years of experience designing and implementing programs and strategies that transform energy use and empower communities to take action, and Community Electricity is a Los Angeles-based advanced electricity community developer that designs, finances, develops and manages self-sufficient electricity communities.

The project will be implemented in the Basset-Avocado Advanced Energy Community, a 28,000-resident community that will serve enrolled participants with the network's services, which will include a digital application to engage and guide community members towards decarbonization, a smart community solar and storage system to offset annual electricity load, a campus microgrid resilience hub to provide clean back-up power to the community in emergencies, severe heat days or blackouts, and a prosumer network and a virtual power plant integrating 50 single-family homes equipped with solar photovoltaic and battery storage to demonstrate a Blockchain community network pilot.

The community will also be furnished with a mobile grid that includes a community-operated electric van-pooling service and a network of fast EV charging stations to decrease the use of fossil fuel vehicles, reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality, an indoor-outdoor smart pollution sensor network including an IoT-based NOx emissions monitoring system to measure and improve emissions from fossil fuel vehicles still operating within the community, and a mobile living laboratory to periodically perform rounds throughout the community, measuring and reporting real-time decarbonization impact.

Estudio Garrido acted as principal legal adviser to Space AI in its association with the California Energy Coalition, UCLA and the consortium of companies involved, with a team led by managing partner Gustavo Garrido, with associate Francisco Ruiz Guiñazú.

Source: Iberian Lawyer