Nearly 75% of the smart grid money will come from utilities updating their grids, while industrial giants work to secure their piece of the pie
By Maria Gallucci
No one doubts that any big renewables push — like President Obama's call to get 80 percent of U.S. power from cleaner sources by 2035 — will demand an upgrade of the nation's electrical systems to digital "smart" grids. But is it happening?
New research by Lux Research suggests that the answer is yes. The firm predicts a $20 billion spending surge in smart technologies in the next ten years, led by electric utilities and global grid giants like ABB, who are ready to cash in on the power revolution.
The January report finds that the new digital grid networks will pump out 900 percent more data to electric utility companies by 2020, as they install millions of smart meters, the in-home devices that report energy usage.
To handle the data explosion, utility companies and industrial power firms are expected to nearly triple the current $12.8 billion smart grid market to $34.2 billion by investing in the distribution hardware, management software and information technology (IT) needed.
Nearly 75 percent of that money will come from utilities updating their grids to make way for the smart grid revolution, Steve Minnihan, a Lux Research analyst and the lead author of the report, told SolveClimate News.
Smart Grids: 'Absolutely Essential' for Clean Power
"Smart grids are absolutely essential to the widespread adoption of solar and wind energy," Minnihan said.
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