According to Navigant Research, the global small to medium wind turbine (SMWT) market is expected to reach $2.4 billion in revenue by 2023. To give a comparison, the current state of the SMWT market for 2015 is approximately $1 billion.
The study considered any wind turbine up to 500kW rated power as part of the SMWT market and analyzed “market issues, including growth drivers and implementation challenges”. The study estimates that total global installations will grow from 254.9MW in 2014 to 587.7MW in 2023.
Not surprisingly to anyone in the small to medium wind industry, UK took the lead in installations these past 2 years. However, China and Italy remain to be important markets for the industry and will continue to see growth while the US is expected to slow.
Dexter Gauntlett, who is the senior research analyst with Navigant Research said:
“Growth in small wind power, to date, has been tied to state and federal incentives in the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States,”
“Now the sector is maturing, with momentum building around the wind lease model–which has enabled strong growth not only in the U.S. solar photovoltaic market, but also among microgrids, islands, and developing countries where incentives are less important.”
The main issue for all countries, and the US in particular, is whether or not government incentives will stay intact or be left to expire. However, the small to medium wind market is providing many farmers with the ability to produce their own energy at a reduced cost; the benefits for distributed wind are numerous. We will see how close this forecast comes to reality in the next 9 years.