A new report from Guidehouse Insights examines data on known grid-tied and remote microgrid projects in the proposal, planning, and deployed stages across six regions worldwide.
The report, Microgrid Deployment Tracker 1Q20, covers seven market segments: commercial/industrial, community, utility distribution, institutional/campus, military, remote, and direct current. Specific project-level data is provided on total, installed, and planned capacities, generation technology mix, and 10 microgrid states.
As of 1Q 2020, Guidehouse Insights has identified 6610 microgrid projects representing 31,784.6 MW of planned and installed power capacity. Regionally, North America is the leading microgrid market in terms of total capacity and project count, followed by Asia Pacific and Latin America. According to the report, North America has retaken its role as the global microgrid leader over Asia Pacific, claiming 36.3% of global capacity.
"North America's push for the top spot as the global capacity leader is because of a large quantity of fossil-based commercial and industrial (C&I) system additions being deployed as resiliency solutions," said Shayne Willette, research analyst with Guidehouse Insights. "This contrasts with last year's findings, which showed a large amount of rural electrification projects in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa."
On a segment basis, remote microgrids and C&I represent more than 65% of all microgrid capacity globally at 36.0% and 29.1%, respectively. According to the report, the remote segment represents 11,452.2 MW of capacity and C&I represents 9263.9 MW. Regarding new entries, the C&I segment accounts for 85.8% of new projects identified.
An executive summary of the report is available for free download here.
