Worldwide annual installations of microgrid capacity will grow from 866 megawatts in 2014 to more than 4,100 megawatts by 2020, says a new report from Navigant Research.
North America is currently the largest region for microgrids today, and will likely continue to be through 2020, the report said.
The Asia Pacific region, however, will likely emerge as the global leader for microgrid deployments by 2030 or 2035, due to the immense need for power for growing populations not served by traditional grid infrastructure.
According to Navigant Research, nearly 2,800 megawatts of microgrid capacity will be installed in Asia Pacific from 2014 to 2020.
Community/utility microgrids lead the market of microgrid projects, says Navigant Research
The market of microgrids is fueled by the growth of distributed generation and the desire of consumers and businesses to move toward greater independence in their use of electricity. The main technology components of microgrid have made significant headway.
Microgrid deployments have grown rapidly around the world in a variety of application segments. In the U.S., in particular, the increasing frequency of severe weather is prompting utilities to reconsider their historic opposition to customer-owned microgrids that can disconnect from the larger grid and continue to function, allowing critical mission functions to stay up and running.
Navigant Research revealed that the key to future growth in the market growth in the microgrid market rests with greater creativity in both the public policy and business model arenas.