smart Grid: A $20 BILLION MARKET IN FIVE YEARS

SPECIAL REPORT October 5, 2009, 8:18PM EST

"A $20 BILLION MARKET IN FIVE YEARS"

The Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research and design group, estimates that it will cost $165 billion, or roughly $8 billion a year for 20 years, to create the smart grid. The market for the gear needed to overhaul smart-grid communications alone may reach $20 billion a year in five years, Cisco estimates. Other technology companies developing smart-grid software and hardware include IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL), Google (GOOG), and Siemens (SI)."