Analyst Insight: Emerging Business Models for Microgrids

This 23rd edition of the Guidehouse Insights Microgrid Deployment Tracker covers seven microgrid market segments and six principal geographies. The Tracker does not list unit sales of devices; instead, it lists proposed, planned, in-development, and operating microgrids and selected portfolios of microgrids by country, program, and vendor. The Tracker represents the largest and most thorough overview of the microgrid market published by any research service or government organization. Its purpose is to provide the best, up-to-date summary of microgrid projects globally, highlighting key trends across regional markets, customer segments, and generation technologies.

For this update, Guidehouse Insights has estimated capacity of microgrid projects where component-level data was not reported or could not be verified. This new, more accurate process revealed approximately 2.5 GW of capacity that was previously omitted. Guidehouse Insights will adopt this process for estimating component-level capacity for all future Microgrid Tracker updates. The Tracker is updated continuously and published every other quarter. The next update is scheduled to be published in 3Q 2023.

This accompanying Analyst Insight maps emerging business models affecting dynamic microgrid markets in leading world regions. The number of microgrid projects deployed globally continues to expand, particularly as energy customers look to improve energy sustainability, reliability, and resilience, and reduce their costs. To accompany this growing need, many leading microgrid developers now offer an energy as a service (EaaS) model that requires no upfront capital from end customers. Some microgrid developers are also enhancing their offerings by using available microgrid capacity to bid into energy markets, improving their ROI. Additional topics covered in this report include microgrid trends, drivers, and barriers; insights into microgrid standardization; a regional market overview by segment; and recommendations for market participants.