The increasing demand for renewable sources for energy generation and rapid industrialisation has played a huge part in providing the necessary boost to the global small wind market, which is estimated to reach $1.89 billion by 2019, with a projected CAGR of 19.5 per cent, according to a new research.

Strong growth has been projected for the small wind market in the next five years, as demand for small wind turbines continues to rise in the wake of escalated use of renewable energy, said a research by  MarketsandMarkets.

Leading players in the small wind market include: Northern Power Systems (US); Bergey Wind Power Co (US); Kingspan Group (Netherlands); Shanghai Ghrepower Green Energy Co Ltd (China); Endurance Wind Power (Canada); ZKEnergy Technology Co (China), and Xzeres Wind Corp (UK).

The demand for small wind power has escalated

One of the major developments observed in the small wind market is new product development. It is essential for the manufacturers to continually invest in research and development (R&D) activities and come up with innovative solutions to adhere to the standards set by government for small wind market. Companies are adopting inorganic growth strategies such as acquisitions to cope with the increasing demand of small wind power in key emerging markets. These strategies have aided companies to create a large customer and partner base in key markets.

Small wind turbines with a capacity rating of less than or equal to 100 kW are designed to produce clean energy, emission-free power farms for homes and small businesses. Small wind turbines include all plants where the swept rotor area is smaller than 200 sq m at 350 W/m2. These small wind turbines find application in off-grid setups such as telecommunication towers and domestic uses. Small wind is expected to become an important source of renewable energy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, said the report.

Growing environmental concerns, coupled with economic advantages, have led governments across the world to support the renewable energy industry, thereby expanding the small wind market. The capital costs involved in setting up a functional wind power project still remain high, but the gradual shift towards reducing reliance on fossil fuel consumption for electricity has aided cost reduction for wind technology.

The demand for small wind power has escalated due to rapid industrialisation and development of infrastructure in unconnected areas. The rise in wind energy generation initiatives offers an attractive opportunity to the wind turbine manufacturers. The North American region accounted for the largest market share in the small wind market in 2014; this is owing to the high demand for on-grid applications of small wind power, especially in developed nations such as the US. In the European region, the demand for small wind power for off-grid applications, from most of the Western European countries, is expected to grow at a high rate in coming years.