Pike Research

Construction of new energy-efficient homes, and retrofits of existing buildings, will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent from 2012 to 2020, the cleantech market intelligence firm Pike Research forecasts, producing 118.6 billion square feet of energy efficient residential space and driving an annual market value of USD84 billion by 2020.

Asia Pacific dominates the global market for electric motorcycles and scooters, according to a new report. Last year Asia bought nearly 17 million e-motorcycles against a paltry 300,000 for the rest of the world, said Pike Research. While most regions are in their early states, Pike says that “one region stands out as an established market: China, where the market is highly fragmented with a large number of small manufacturers”.

New research says that there's a growing interest in systems that store energy, especially from renewable power generation. Pike Research says that while cost reduction is a serious requirement along with improving technologies, there is a growing interest in enabling long-duration and short-duration storage helping in balancing electricity grid operations. Its tracker report says there are nearly 600 energy storage projects worldwide.

A new report from Pike Research predicts the biofuel industry will double in size to USD185 billion by 2021. Meanwhile in the European Union – the world's largest biofuel market – the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), a producers group, has rejected the findings of a EU-funded study into the indirect land use change (ILUC) effect of biofuel production as unscientific.

In the Asia Pacific region, fuel cell technology has gained a great deal of momentum in the past few years and is being employed in an ever-increasing array of applications – from enabling high-efficiency homes, de-carbonizing transportation, and cleaning up ports to reducing energy dependence on oil-producing nations and increasing resilience in energy networks.