One of the least expensive, most reliable distributed generation (DG) technologies available today, Navigant Research says diesel gensets have expanding opportunities ($41.2 billion by 2018 globally) among homeowners and commercial facilities that require mission-critical power in the event of a grid outage.
"Although providers of diesel gensets can expect to see continued growth over the next several years, they face rising competition from natural gas gensets," said Dexter Gauntlett, research analyst with Navigant. "Over the next decade, the increase in unconventional gas resources and tightening emissions regulations for stationary generators will favour clean-burning natural gas systems over their diesel counterparts in North America."
These developments, however, will take time to fully materialize, says Navigant. In the short term, countries with strong economic and/or population growth rates that are increasingly burdened by blackouts (e.g. Nigeria, India, Chile, South Africa) continue to drive diesel genset sales. Industries in India, for example, have become highly dependent on diesel due to power outages spanning as much as 16 hours per day, says Navigant, making them more vulnerable to price volatility.
