IDC Energy Insights’ new report, “Global Smart Buildings Forecast 2013-2018” forecasts spending on smart building technology to grow from $7.3 billion in 2014 to $21.9 billion in 2018, representing a 28.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
Key findings of the report include:
- Investments over the past several years have focused on HVAC systems. Customers are now beginning to expand their evaluation to lighting, plug load, equipment maintenance and other issues.
- With many basic control and monitoring systems in place, a need is developing for intelligent software and external services to help analyze, interpret, and prioritize the data that is being collected.
- Vertical industry has a large impact on the rate of adoption of smart building technologies. Buildings managed in the government or healthcare verticals, for example, tend to be more mature in their appreciation of the benefits of smart buildings, and more advanced in their deployment.
- Different countries face very different drivers towards the expansion of smart buildings, including owners and managers seeking to reduce and control energy costs (US); to governments driving environmental and energy efficiency objectives (Germany); to meeting energy supply challenges (Japan).