The AAC started to routinely use NVD in the late 80's mainly in NI. These took the form of a hand-held monocle that was only used by the non handling pilot. Handling pilot pretty much flying blind with the non handling pilot or crewman talking him down with a Gen 1 tube. Punchy stuff!
As for civvy applications. Its starting to take off quite a bit (excuse the pun) in civvy flying. Mainly law enforcement and mainly in the US. Although I believe the UK police ASUs are starting to use them, they are not widespread at the moment. Silsoe Sid is probably the best person to ask in this field.
For general civvy use, its non starter really because of several factors. Firstly, a Robinson 22 for example would have absolutely no requirement to use NVG even if the pilot had a night rating. He will be taking off from an airfield with lighting and landing at an airfield with lighting. The bits in between would requite him to be above 2000' and NVG dont really have much use above 500' or so. If he wants to land in a field location, he is either daft or will ensure it is brightly lit. Secondly; training. The cost of training to get to an acceptable level would be prohibitive for your average PPL(H) or even commercial outfit especially when you consider the amount of training required and the amount of currency he would require to remain safe. Thirdly; the cockpit would need to be fully NVG compatible. It would be a huge cost to convert a Bell Jetranger or even a Robinson 22 and certify it for flights under NVG. When you think that if they did, it would only be for take off and landing. Far cheaper and safer to ensure your landing site is suitably lit.
NVG come into their own in the low level environment and seeings how there is no requirement for civvy general aviation to be down there at night, there is no real application for them.
I think the next big push is to try and get the Air Ambulances Night and NVG'd. Their world is landing in mainly unrecced' areas attending accidents and NVG would be very useful and increase their capability hugely. Currently, most air ambulances are day only which is quite limiting. As I've said, the cost is prohibitive at present (not just for the cost of the goggles but the training and compatibility issues I've mentioned). Luckily, most of the police and air ambulances are flown by experienced ex mil pilots with lots of time on goggles so as and when they do go NVG, it shouldn't be too much of a drama. The people to convince is the Campaign Against Aviation (CAA- Civil Aviation Authority).
On the military side, we are playing around with some very interesting systems at the moment. Panoramic NVG, HMD (Helmet mounted displays) as well as fully intergrated systems; NVG/Thermal integration will full flight and conformal symbology displayed via a couple of small visor projectors.