A new report from Navigant Research says annual installed capacity across the global distributed energy resources (DER) market is expected to grow from 136.4 GW this year to 530.7 GW in 2024.
According to the report, DER deployments are challenging incumbent grid operating models, requiring a more dynamic network with advanced communications and orchestration to ensure stability, efficiency and equality. Given the diversity of available DER technologies and rapidly declining costs, most countries are expected to see more new DER capacity deployed than centralized generation capacity in the coming decade – especially solar photovoltaic generation and energy storage.
‘The overarching goal of DER deployments is to integrate these resources effectively in order to make the electricity grid more efficient, resilient, cost-effective and sustainable,’ says Mackinnon Lawrence, senior research director with Navigant Research. ‘With global DER capacity deployments expected to outpace centralized generation five-to-one by 2024, there is little doubt that technologies like solar PV, energy storage and demand response will force an unprecedented restructuring of grid architecture and utility business models.’
An executive summary of the report is available here.
