Pike Research featured only HOMER Energy as a provider of design software for the remote microgrid market, slated to reach $10.2 billion by 2017.
Boulder, CO, January 11, 2012 —HOMER Energy is featured among “key industry players” in a new Pike Research report examining the potential for the international remote microgrid market. HOMER Energy provides microgrid design modeling software that simplifies complex choices for energy planners by simulating systems that use combinations of conventional and renewable energy. Pike Research is predicting a 21% increase in capacity for the remote microgrid market by 2017, from 349 MW to 1.1 GW.
Pike’s report on the remote microgrid market is one of a series looking at segments of the rapidly growing microgrid market, and Pike is predicting the remote market to be the largest in the coming five years. Although there are thousands of off-grid energy systems worldwide powered by diesel engines, Pike is defining remote microgrids to mean systems that combine conventional and renewable power, while operating disconnected from a central grid. As developing countries improve their standard of living, energy use is increasing, and hybrid renewable energy systems are viewed as an important sustainable economic development opportunity. Village power systems represent the largest potential subset of the remote microgrid market, according to Pike, because they require the largest investment per kilowatt.
The HOMER software has its roots in the Village Power Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which focused on finding sustainable solutions for those parts of the world that had no electricity. Initially developed as a tool to aid developing countries, HOMER is now in demand for a wide variety of microgrid applications, including military bases, campuses, industrial parks, communities adding renewable energy to their portfolio mix, remote tourism, and many others.
Pike Research predicts substantial growth in other subsets of the remote microgrid market, including islands remote mining operations, and energy self-sufficient military bases. Mobile military microgrid applications for Forward Operating Bases are the best-funded application in the remote microgrid category, because they save lives by reducing the need for fuel convoys through hostile territories, which are notorious for their high casualty rates.
Since developing countries comprise approximately 80% of the world’s population, but consume only 30% of global commercially traded energy supplies, rising energy demand is inevitable. Because of the need for energy independence and requirements for clean energy driven by climate change, HOMER Energy is anticipating increasingly strong sales potential in remote energy markets.