Microgrid market will reach nearly $20 billion by 2020

Microgrids are accelerating, improving grid reliability and resilience with distributed energy resources, DC and grid-tied systems; Navigant Research projects strong revenue growth as business models mature across campus, military, remote, and C&I segments.

During the last few years, the pace of microgrid deployment has accelerated rapidly around the world, in a variety of application segments. Now, the industry is moving into the next phase of project development, focusing on how to develop projects on commercially viable terms. Click to tweet: According to a new report from Navigant Research, worldwide vendor revenue from microgrids will grow from $4.3 billion in 2013 to $19.9 billion in 2020, in the base scenario.

Under a more aggressive scenario, microgrid revenue could reach $36.2 billion annually, the study concludes.

“Microgrids are inching their way into the mainstream, with the focus of the market shifting from technology validation to questions surrounding the most promising business models for the smart grid,” says Peter Asmus, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “The number of companies active in the space, and the range of applications of microgrids across industries are growing exponentially, yet there is little consensus on the pace of development in the coming years.”

It has become clear that today’s modern, digital economy requires a more advanced, robust, and responsive power grid framework than what currently exists, especially in the United States, the world’s leading market for microgrids. According to statistics from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 80 percent to 90 percent of all grid failures begin at the distribution grid level of electricity service. This is the exact portion of the power system where microgrids operate, according to the report, bolstering reliability from the bottom up, rather than from the top down.

The report, “Microgrids”, analyzes the global market for microgrids in five key segments commercial/industrial, community/utility, campus/institutional, military, and remote and two new subsegments grid-tied UDMs and DC microgrids. The report provides an analysis of the market issues, including business cases, opportunities, and implementation challenges associated with microgrids.

Global smart grid market forecasts for capacity and revenue, broken out by scenario, segment, region, country, and U.S. state, extend through 2020. The report also examines the main technologies related to microgrids, identifies nine different business models applicable to microgrid development, and profiles key market players. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.

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