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If you need more evidence of real upside in the cleantech and renewable sectors, chew on this from ABI Research.

A new market study “Plug-in Vehicle Infrastructures” projects a fast-growing market for charging station infrastructure, with worldwide revenues reaching $11.75 billion for the installation of 3 million charging stations by 2015, up from just over 20,000 stations installed in 2010.”

And if you throw in just-in-time transportation services like ZipCar, you can really start to connect the dots around what the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem might look like. From a scale perspective, the benefit to companies providing services is clear: these are models that are interconnected from day one to the grid.

Whether it’s via smartphones, in-car systems, or real-time meters in homes and businesses, the data will be always-on and interactive. That’s quite a change from just a few years ago. And it’s quite an opportunity.