The Benefits of Smart Grids Include Fighting Climate Change, says NextGen Research
OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-(Business Wire)-September 24, 2009 - Increasing the efficiency of electrical power networks can help fight climate change, since any improvement means less carbon-based fuel needs to be burned to generate power, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. Upgraded electrical networks also encourage the integration of renewable energy sources, like wind power and photovoltaic energy, into utilities’ power generation portfolio, further reducing the need to burn oil, gas or coal to meet our ever-growing electrical power needs.
Upgrading electrical networks into smart grids also allows them to act as a communication infrastructure reaching from the energy source all the way to the customer’s premises, permitting real-time adjustments of electrical demand and delivery, according to NextGen Research’s study “Smart Grid Applications: Demand Response, Decentralized Generation and Smart Meters Increase Electrical Networks’ Capabilities, Efficiency and Reliability” (URL: http://www.nextgenresearch.com/research/1002016-Smart_Grid_Applications). Enabling advanced information technology and communications tools to operate through that infrastructure will permit utilities to optimize power generation and delivery.
The study’s author, Atakan Ozbek, notes that “economic considerations are also key” for the deployment of smart grids, since they will “reduce transaction costs and increase the profitability of technology investment for renewable energy and for advanced communications.” Further, he observes that “political pressure will be on the utility sector to deploy smart grid networks,” since regulators and politicians alike will value such deployments “for their ability to create jobs as the job market continues to tighten due to the ongoing economic contraction.”
NextGen Research foresees modest growth in smart grids in 2009; growth will start to take off more significantly starting in 2010, as distribution of governmental smart grid stimulus funding begins in earnest. Over the forecast period, NextGen Research expects global spending on smart grids, including hardware, software, installation, integration and any related value-added services, will grow to account for $33.4 billion in revenues in 2014 on a cumulative basis, up from $12.1 billion in 2008.
According to Mr. Ozbek, the pace of mergers and acquisitions in the smart grid sector will increase in the coming months. “We also expect to see a new batch of technology companies entering the smart grid market, as federal monies increasingly support smart grid R&D across North America and, to a lesser degree, in Europe.”
NextGen Research is the emerging technology arm of ABI Research (www.ABIResearch.com). NextGen Research informs clients of the outlook for applications currently in use and the opportunities presented by new technologies, so they can make sound business decisions. For more information, please visit www.NextGenResearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2526.
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
 |
|
||
Search Our News Using Google Search
Can't find what you want? Try using Google:
