Installed Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S. Declined Significantly in 2010 and 2011

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http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/09/15/tracking-the-sun-iv/

Installed Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S. Declined Significantly in 2010 and 2011

Berkeley Lab releases “Tracking the Sun IV,” a report on PV systems from 1998 to 2010.

September 15, 2011
Allan Chen [phone] [e-mail]

News Release

Technical Contacts:
Galen Barbose [phone], [e-mail]
Ryan Wiser [phone], [e-mail]

Berkeley, CA — The installed cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2010 and into the first half of 2011, according to the latest edition of an annual PV cost tracking report released by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The average installed cost of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2010 fell by roughly 17 percent from the year before, and by an additional 11 percent within the first six months of 2011. These recent installed cost reductions are attributable, in part, to dramatic reductions in the price of PV modules. Galen Barbose of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division and co-author of the report explains: “Wholesale PV module prices have fallen precipitously since about 2008, and those upstream cost reductions have made their way through to consumers.”

The report indicates that non-module costs—such as installation labor, marketing, overhead, inverters, and the balance of systems—also fell for residential and commercial PV systems in 2010. “The drop in non-module costs is especially important,” notes report co-author and Berkeley Lab scientist Ryan Wiser, “as those are the costs that can be most readily influenced by solar policies aimed at accelerating deployment and removing market barriers, as opposed to research and development programs that are also aimed at reducing module costs.” According to the report, average non-module costs for residential and commercial systems declined by roughly 18 percent from 2009 to 2010.

Turning to utility-sector PV, costs varied over a wide range for systems installed in 2010, with the cost of systems greater than 5,000 kilowatts (kW) ranging from $2.90 per Watt (W) to $6.20/W, reflecting differences in project size and system configuration, as well as the unique characteristics of certain individual projects. Consistent with continued cost reductions, current benchmarks for the installed cost of prototypical, large utility-scale PV projects generally range from $3.80/W to $4.40/W.

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