According to a new report from Navigant Research, worldwide revenue from all forms of residential distributed generation and energy storage will grow from $52.7 billion annually in 2014 to $71.6 billion in 2023.
The growing affordability of DER technologies, such as rooftop photovoltaics, is altering utilities’ traditional relationship with residential customers by giving customers greater control of their energy consumption, the report says.
“Rooftop solar PV is just one of the technologies that are transforming the traditional residential power industry,” says Neil Strother, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Some of these technologies, such as residential combined heat and power, are in the early stages of market development, while solar panels are more mature. Nonetheless, these energy innovations and attractive financing mechanisms provide residential customers with new options.”
One key driver for this sector, according to the report, is continuing advances in new technologies, such as more efficient energy storage systems (ESSs). These advances, along with government subsidies for ESSs, often in the form of feed-in tariffs, are enabling the combination of rooftop solar PV systems and residential energy storage in order to collect and store energy for use when sunlight is unavailable or there is a power outage.
An executive summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.
Another study, from research and consulting firm GlobalData, found similar results. The distributed power generation market is set to undergo substantial expansion over the coming years, with its contribution to the global installed power capacity more than doubling from 190 Gigawatts in 2013 to approximately 389 GW by 2019, says an analyst with GlobalData.
Having achieved approximately 92 GW of installed power capacity up to the end of 2013, the solar Photovoltaic sector holds the top position in the global distributed power market segment, with a 48% share of the total distributed installed capacity. It is followed by Combined Heat and Power and wind power, with 38% and 13% shares, respectively.
Approximately $74.8 billion was invested in the global solar PV distributed power market in 2013, accounting for a massive 77% share of the total investments that year. Overall, GlobalData states that the bankroll in the global distributed power market is expected to increase to more than $114 billion by 2019.
Bloomberg, in a July 15 summary, reports that global clean energy investment surged to $63.6bn in the second quarter of 2014, up 33% compared to the first quarter and 9% compared to Q2 2013, according to the latest authoritative figures from research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The stand-out deal of the quarter was the €2.8bn (equity & debt) financings of the 600 MW Gemini offshore wind farm in the North Sea, off the coast of the Netherlands, the largest investment decision ever in renewable energy, excluding large hydro-electric. Signed in May, the transaction involved the developer ? Canada’s Northland Power ? plus three other equity investor groups, 12 European, Canadian and Japanese commercial banks, the European Investment Bank, a Danish pension fund and three export-credit agencies.
Bloomberg's New Energy Finance reports are available at http://about.bnef.com/.