Market Report on the Microgeneration of the Renewable Energy Sector

Published: March 2010

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report considers renewable energy generated from natural sources such as wind, sun or bio-mass and looks particularly at the microgeneration and sale of renewable energy and heat for single site usage. The objective of the report is to provide an overview of the renewable energy microgeneration segment from an all-island perspective and focus on indigenous businesses.

Some of the findings of this report are:

• Estimating the market size and value of the microgeneration segment of the renewable energy sector, is a complex task due to the fact that many of the companies involved in the industry are also involved in other areas, such as heating or electric and mechanical engineering. 
• The microgeration industry on the island of Ireland is composed of a variety of business types, each of varying size and dealing with different technologies and applications of renewable energy.
• There are approximately 900 energy companies on the island of Ireland. Around 250 of those companies are involved in microgeneration of renewable energy either as distributors, installers or manufacturers.
• The large majority of microgeneration systems are being imported from established manufacturing bases in Europe, USA and Japan where renewable energy has been a mainstream industry for longer.
• The main challenge of microgeneration is found at the adoption stage. Therefore, the role of government funding schemes has become very important for the microgeneration market uptake.
• There are approximately 1,000 installers in various renewable technologies trained through
  the schemes currently in existence.
• Cross-border trade is an important aspect of the microgeneration sector in Ireland. A large number of businesses would operate across the jurisdictions, as the training, skills, equipment, systems and regulations are very similar.
• Both jurisdictions have grant support schemes for the promotion of microgeneration technologies.
• Greater investment and further commercialisation will enable the microgeneration sector to achieve its potential of becoming part of a commercial mass market decentralised energy system.
• The sector has real potential to become a large growth industry in the future, particularly as measures are taken to deal with higher energy costs, energy security and carbon emissions.