Another day, another market research report is out (well, hundreds probably came out today). As always, though, it’s hard to pass up one on solar power. And the one today is even on distributed solar power.
Former Maldives President Nasheed installing solar panels on his home. Photo Credit: 350.org/ Mohamed Ali (some rights reserved)
According to Navigant Research (formerly Pike Research), 220 gigawatts (GW) — 220,000 megawatts (MW) — of distributed solar power capacity will be installed between 2013 and 2018.
“The global electric power industry is evolving from a financial and engineering model that relies on large centralized power plants owned by utilities to one that is more diverse, in terms of both the sources of generation and the ownership of the generation assets,” a press release about the new report states. “Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems offer the benefit of producing electricity onsite, thereby reducing the need to build new transmission capacity and avoiding line losses.”
The new solar power capacity is supposed to represent about $540 billion in revenue.
“Used in applications ranging from residential to small commercial to industrial settings, distributed solar generation offers significant benefits to consumers while adding resiliency to an electric grid evolving beyond the traditional centralized model,” says Dexter Gauntlett, research analyst with Navigant Research. “Though this market is still primarily driven by government incentives, distributed solar PV will continue its steady march toward grid parity in major markets over the next few years.”
Not much there that you don’t know, but it’s nice to see the word getting out there. If you’re interested in finding out more details, however, you can go download the report from the Navigant website.
