Small wind energy market to double in size by 2013, according to new report

10 December 2009

Small wind power systems, a segment of the broader renewable distributed energy generation (RDEG) industry, are finding an increasing number of niche applications in residential and commercial markets, according to a new report from Pike Research.

The report says that the global small wind market is poised for strong growth in the next few years, with revenues forecast to expand from $203m in 2009 to $412m in 2013, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 per cent. During that same period, worldwide installed capacity of small wind turbines will increase from 49MW to 115MW.

‘Small wind energy is less expensive than solar on a cost per watt basis,’ said senior analyst David Link, ‘which is driving more and more businesses and rural consumers to give it a second look. In addition, we are seeing increasing government support for small wind.’ Link adds that the applications for small wind include residential off-grid power, agricultural applications, community microgrids, schools and government buildings, and remote telecom network power, among others.

The report also finds that key market barriers include intermittent reliability of power, permitting and siting challenges, and a general lack of suitability for off-grid applications. For these reasons, small wind turbines, using a variety of innovative designs, are most often used in conjunction with other energy sources including solar photovoltaics, diesel generation, or battery backup power.

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Tags: wind

This story was published on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under companies, knowledge, wind, wind. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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