Germany looks like it will continue to hold its title as probably the world’s greenest country, with a new study offering a sunny forecast for the nation’s smart home and smart metering future, to join its existing solar power dominance.
The German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE in German), released a new study this week estimating that a number of factors will collide to grow the smart home and smart metering market in Germany significantly over the next decade.
The study is going off several trends that VDE has noticed shaping Germany’s energy policy now, which seem to indicate a rosy future ahead.
“Rising energy costs and changing demographics will significantly stimulate the market for smart homes in Germany within the next 10 years,” Metering.com reported, summarizing the report. “By 2025 smart home features will be standard in upscale dwellings, in particular in new homes, says VDE, predicting that the country’s smart home market will grow to €19 billion by that year.”
The report also talks about what is holding the industry back today, hurdles that will be overcome in the next few years, including a lack of well-defined industry standards for communicating among appliances and other devices (which groups are working hard on), the high cost of the relatively new and rapidly evolving equipment necessary for a full smart home setup, and the lack of understanding of the value of smart home technologies among homeowners today, which is sure to change as everything in our lives gets smarter and the technology becomes more ubiquitous.
At the same time, VDE predicts that the rising cost of energy will drive customers to look for savings, which these efficient technologies offer, from simple increased efficiency while being used to the new generation of energy management systems that can turn devices on or off when necessary.
“VDE says that to accelerate market development, it has launched the Smart Home + Building certification program, in partnership with the industry and with support from the Ministry of Economics and Technology,” the summary continues. “The aim is to develop standards, including a quality standard for plug-and-play applications. The program should also spur Germany towards market leadership against strong competition from East Asia.”
