Smart grid: A $45 billion opportunity?

Remember our rants about the need for a so-called Intelligrid, and about how local investors were starting to talk about this too, i.e., a more efficient way to distribute power, which would also help the environment? Well, the Global Environment Fund has just released a report, saying this is a $45 billion opportunity. Via Rob Day:

Now the Global Environment Fund, a cleantech venture investment firm, has released a very useful study which specifically addresses the subject. Out of the global $81B spend on power grid infrastructure in 2005, they argue….

…, $25B could be addressed by “smart” products. As they point out, transmission spending is already forecast to be greatly increasing in the U.S., since 70% of transmission lines are 25 years old or older, 70% of transformers are 25 years old or older, and 60% of circuit breakers are 30 years old or older — and we’re running out of capacity to begin with. A large bill is becoming due, and smart grid technologies can help mitigate the costs and build a more reliable system in the doing.

Page 6 of the report has the $45 billion reference.