BOULDER, CO—Fueled by the growth of distributed generation and the desire of consumers and businesses to move toward greater independence in their use of electricity, the microgrid concept has moved steadily toward the mainstream in the last few years.

The main technology components of microgrids have made significant headway, and Navigant Research's analysis indicates that the key to future growth in the microgrid market now rests with greater creativity in both the public policy and business model arenas. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, worldwide installations of microgrid capacity will grow from 866 megawatts in 2014 to more than 4,100 megawatts by 2020.

“The pace of microgrid deployments has accelerated rapidly around the world, in a variety of application segments,” says Peter Asmus, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “In the United States, in particular, the increasing frequency of severe weather is prompting utilities to reconsider their historic opposition to customer-owned microgrids that can disconnect from the larger grid and continue to function, allowing critical mission functions to stay up and running.”