The Key Players in Global Smart Solar Market 2016-2020

Wednesday 31 August 2016, Amsterdam

The report, now available on ASDReports, recognizes the following companies as the key players in the global smart solar market: ABB, Echelon, GE Power & Water, Schneider Electric, and Siemens.

Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: Itron, Landis+GYR, Sensus USA, Silver Spring Networks, Solarcity, Sunnova, Urban Green Energy (UGE) International, and Vivint Solar.

Commenting on the report, an analyst said: “One of the key trends for market growth will be increasing demand for solutions and services. The recent trend in the smart solar industry depicts the growth in demand for solutions and services due to advances in technology in components, such as smart meters, solar simulators, and grid intelligent components, services and applications of the smart solar. Thus most of the vendors are focusing on providing complete solutions for smart solar i.e. from components to the services. Also, the rise in demand for energy necessitates the need of energy management solutions and demands response services to be integrated with the installations. Now solution services, such as accuracy of bill and record of consumption of energy, are in demand, which is fueling the smart solar market. Another major factor will be intermittent nature of solar energy, which requires such services to manage the solar energy better. Hence, the smart solar is an integrated solution.”

According to the report, growing environmental concerns will be a key driver for market growth. CO? emission is a major global concern for countries and companies. The US energy-related CO? emission was 5,406 MMT in 2014. Combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) for energy and transportation, certain industrial processes, and land use changes are some of the human activities that emit CO?. The primary source of CO? emission in the US are power, transportation, and industrial sectors. If the world adopts the smart energy technologies (including smart solar) then CO? emissions could be reduced by 15% globally. There are numerous ways of using smart solar technologies, such as smart grids and meters, that will have a big impact on cutting carbon.

Further, the report states that high risk of cyber-attacks will be a challenge for the market. Advances in IT and implementation of technology to control power generation and distribution have increased chances of cyber-attacks. Smart solar grid infrastructure uses internet technologies; hence, data are extremely vulnerable to security threats in the absence of a robust cyber security setup. Smart solar grids are also vulnerable to virus attacks. Mishandling by engineers or operators can cause severe damage to these grids. Traditionally, power utilities have not been exposed to such security issues; hence they lack the experience or expertise to deal with such circumstances.

The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.