“Just like the larger PV market, the global PV O&M market has been growing at a fast pace these past few years,” says report author Cedric Brehaut. “And unlike the EPC business, it remains attractive even when new construction slows, as seen in Germany, where the addressable O&M market for megawatt-scale plants exceeds 11 gigawatts in 2015 despite a drop in new megawatt-scale plant activations.”
More than half of the world’s O&M market has arisen in the last two years alone. The report identifies the distinct characteristics of markets where new installations remain the primary O&M opportunity, as in the U.S. -- versus countries where most of the addressable O&M market consists of older plants, as in Germany and Spain.
FIGURE: Global Megawatt-Scale PV O&M Market in 2015 by Plant Activation Year (Percentage of GW)
Source: Megawatt-Scale PV O&M and Asset Management
The report breaks down operations, maintenance, and asset management into three distinct services within the solar industry and analyzes the competitive landscape for each of these segments. While many vendors offer all these services, asset management remains distinct from O&M in most cases. The report notes a major trend of the decoupling of operations and maintenance, with half of analyzed O&M providers reporting different megawatt counts under operations compared to megawatts under maintenance.
“With a single vendor providing both asset management and O&M, there is no duplication of supervision and reporting functions, so arguably this results in lower staffing costs for managing the same asset portfolio,” said Brehaut. “But there are real risks that a ‘one-stop shop’ provider may not defend the interests of the owner as fiercely as would an independent asset manager.” A new trend also shows increased separation between operators and maintenance providers in certain markets because the two functions require very different competencies and infrastructures.
As the market grows, new competition emerges. GTM Research and SoliChamba Consulting segment the market into nine distinct provider types: project developers and EPCs, utilities and IPPs, investors, vertically integrated firms, inverter companies, independent service providers, and affiliated service providers. Each category has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The forecasted 390 of O&M gigawatts by 2020 will be served by a variety of business models and vendors.
