Greentech Lead Europe: World Smart Grid sales at installed prices climbed to $36.5 billion in 2012 a growth of 30 percent on 2011 as China takes the lead according to Memoori’s latest report.
However VC investments for smart grid fell 37 percent in 2012 as compared to 2011. Total new VC investment in Smart Grid for 2012 was $779 million based on 41 transactions. However, the research firm expects this trend to be reversed in 2013.
Worldwide smart grid market is rather unbalanced because the current share taken by AMI was around 40 percent; whilst its potential market value over the full 20 year program to deliver a complete Smart Grid, will be no more than 9 percent.
Automating the T&D sector has finally moved ahead taking 55 percent whilst its technical
market potential is over 70 percent.
M&A activity reached $19.5 billion almost doubling the value of deals in the previous year. Both the growth and now scale of M&A activity show the supply side is gearing up to meet the requirements for new technology and the forecast demand for pure Smart Grid products and systems worth approximately $2,000 billion over the next 20 years.
While smart grid industry has progressed in the last three years, regulators and policy makers in the developed markets of the world are struggling to find the framework on which Smart Grid can be effectively built.
In some cases they are losing site of the most important reason for developing a Smart Grid and that is to build a system that will accept as much Variable Renewable Energy that is practical to meet the needs of a low carbon economy in the 21st century.
Also read: Worldwide smart meter shipments surpass 20.6 million units in 4Q 2012