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Distributed Energy Global Market Trends: Japan, Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand
E SOURCE, Nov 2003, Pages: 30
Distributed energy (DE) is rearing its head across the globe. Increasing numbers of industries, commercial establishments, and even residences are generating their own power. In this report, we examine how these markets are emerging in the developed-world economies of Japan, Western Europe, North America (excluding Mexico), Australia, and New Zealand.
The ways in which DE technologies are being applied in various markets show some considerable differences, even though the technologies themselves are similar. For example, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, including thousands of 5-kilowatt (kW) systems, have penetrated several thousand commercial establishments in Europe. Theres also been a successful introduction of 1-kW residential CHP systems in Japan. And CHP has penetrated all of Australias sugar mills. There are 2,000 agricultural biogas schemes in Germany. In Japan, more than 1,000 shops and restaurants use distributed energy for cogeneration and to reduce capacity charges. Will these applications transfer to other regions?
Although it occupies a growing number of niches, distributed energys growth doesnt always resemble a smooth exponential curve. Its not immune from catching colds that affect the wider power-generation markets, such as the recent collapse in Europes CHP markets that occurred after electricity prices fell and gas prices rose. Yet we have found that a number of key market conditions are becoming, or are set to become, more favorable for DE applications in every region we examined.
Looking forward, we see further growth, although not always steady growth, for distributed energy markets in the developed world. For example, residential cogeneration will continue to grow in Japan and Europe. We expect more own-operate distributed energy programs to emerge in North America. And combined cooling and power markets are set to gain increasing market share in Japan and gain a foothold in North America.
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