Transport and distribution

Smart Grid Technology Investment: Forecasts for 2010-2030

Utilities will invest billions of dollars over the next 20 years in deploying their smart grids. This report identifies the major areas of capital and operational expenditure, and pinpoints the opportunities for technology suppliers along the smart grid value chain. It includes:

  • Assessment of the drivers and barriers to smart grid deployment, and how these will influence market evolution.
  • Identification of the principal areas of technology investment in the smart grid, in terms of capital and operational expenditure.

Ten countries will account for 80% of global smart grid investment by 2030

Utilities worldwide will collectively invest more than US$378 billion in building electricity smart grids by 2030. But 80% of this capital spend will be concentrated in just ten countries, according to a new report by Innovation Observatory (www.innovationobservatory.com).

Smart grid investment will reach US$376 billion worldwide by 2025

Cumulative global capital expenditure by utilities on intelligent smart grid infrastructure will reach US$376 billion by the end of 2025, according to a new report by Innovation Observatory (www.innovationobservatory.com). This spend is in addition to basic upgrading of transmission and distribution infrastructure – it is for the intelligent smart grid alone.

Where is the smart money going - in the US and worldwide?

US President Obama has been making much of the potential of renewables. He says that “We know that the country that harnesses the power of the clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century” and as part of the US Economic Stimulus package he allocated over USD150 billion over ten years to a range of renewable energy and green energy projects – a tenfold increases on previous levels of departmental support.

US stimulus package means big bucks for renewables and energy efficiency

President Obama signed a key piece of legislation into law on February 17th – the USD787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – shortly after its final version passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate with 246-183 and 60-38 votes respectively. The bill includes a set of provisions aimed at clean energy that total about USD38 billion in government spending and approximately USD20 billion in tax incentives over the next 10 years.
Some energy-related highlights of the law include:

A trans-continental supergrid

Dr Gregor Czisch from the University of Kassel in Germany claims that a 100% renewable power supply for Europe is possible. In a series of papers and reports he suggests that a programme of renewable energy - largely wind power supported by biomass and existing hydro power for storage and smoothing - can meet the EU's entire future electrical energy needs at cost levels similar to those at present, with the same level of reliability, and without the need for nuclear or fossil fuel.

Irish grid unification will boost renewables

An "All-Island Grid Study" commissioned jointly by the Irish Republic’s Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources and Northern Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment looks at the potential of renewables and the role of the electricity grid on a comprehensive "island of Ireland" basis. Ireland’s Single Electricity Market (SEM) already unites Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland - the first cross-border market of its kind in Europe.

Do proposed HVDC supergrids overcome all the problems of intermittency?

Many sectors of the renewable energy industry are seeing unprecedented growth in deployment of existing proven technologies (solar PV, offshore wind) or major increases in research and development activity (biomass, biofuels, CSP). But advances in electricity storage seem to be proceeding at a much slower pace, perhaps because there is a belief that the creation of supergrids, possibly based on HVDC, will get around the problems by elegantly facilitating the balance of demand and supply over the wide area.

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