Smart building market to expand to $22bn in 2017

 

 Research firm IDC says that spending on technology which makes our cities smarter will reach $21.9 billion by 2018.

IDC says that global spending on smart building technology will grow from $7.3 billion in 2014 to $21.9 billion in 2018, representing rapid growth in areas including the smart grid, buildings, use of electricity, lighting and heating. After several years of slower-than-expected growth, smart buildings technology is expected to grow as "there is increasingly broad market awareness of the business values generated by deploying smart building solutions," the research firm says.

Adoption of these technologies has been slow as the economy recovers from the recession, but as awareness improves, energy costs are predicted to be a top priority of businesses worldwide -- and any way to reduce expenses will be considered. This niche, in itself, will give firms the market demand necessary to prompt research and development within the smart buildings technology field.

Jill Feblowitz at IDC Energy Insights commented:

"As businesses recover following the 'great recession,' building owners continue to focus on managing their operational energy costs and risks. Often, gathering building data is not the issue, rather combining, interpreting, and prioritizing that data is becoming the key challenge.
Smart building solutions are valuable technologies for deploying energy management strategies that generate operational efficiencies, cost containment, and sustainability benefits that appeal to key stakeholders across chain of command in building management."

Read on: IDC

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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com