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The installed price of solar energy has declined significantly in recent years as policy and market forces have driven more and more solar installations.
Now, the latest data show that the continued decrease in solar prices is unlikely to slow down anytime soon, with total installed prices dropping by 5 percent for rooftop residential systems, and 12 percent for larger utility-scale solar farms. With solar already achieving record-low prices, the cost decline observed in 2015 indicates that the coming years will likely see utility-scale solar become cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity generation.
A full analysis of the ongoing decline in solar prices can be found in two separate Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Reports: Tracking the Sun IX focuses on installed pricing trends in the distributed rooftop solar market while Utility-Scale Solar 2015 focuses on large-scale solar farms that sell bulk power to the grid.
[...] The installed cost includes everything needed to get a solar power system up and running: the panels, the power electronics, the mounting hardware, and the installation itself. The continued decline in total installed cost is noteworthy considering the fact that the price of the solar panels (or modules) themselves has remained relatively flat since 2012. This means that the decline in installed cost observed since 2012 was largely caused by a decline in the cost of the inverters that convert the DC power produced by solar panels to AC power for the grid and other "soft" costs such as customer acquisition, system design, installation, and permitting.
[...] Going forward, the declining price of solar across all categories demonstrated by the latest Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reports coupled with the extension of the federal renewable energy investment tax credit through 2019 should drive a continued expansion of the U.S. solar market and even more favorable economics in the next few years. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of market dynamic develops as solar approaches the tipping point where it becomes more economical than conventional forms of electricity generation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Entropy on Tuesday August 30 2016, @11:41AM
Yet I never really see a price reduction when I count it. I hear about cheap (insert thing here) panels, then can't buy them because they don't sell to the public. I hear about a 12% price reduction yet it's just as unaffordable as ever...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday August 30 2016, @12:02PM
Supply and demand, as long as people are willing to pay $20K for X KW, the price is not going to drop merely because the supply cost decreased.
As a thought experiment, if higher ed tuition always goes up 10%/yr, whats the effect of Chinese mass produced whiteboard markers collapsing the price in the whiteboard marker marketplace? Ah thats right, tuition will go up 10% that year. Because thats what the market will bear.
Also see health care. "What would you be willing to pay for good health? Oh, anything you say? We're a monopoly provider so take a wild guess what your bill will then be."
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday August 30 2016, @01:23PM
you obviously didn't even read the summary.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Tuesday August 30 2016, @09:48PM
I'm basing it on cost quotes from vendors with equipment installed. These quotes include (micro)inverter costs. The breakeven period is usually about 15 years or so, which is pretty abysmal...then they go and tell me how "green" it all is, and other such crap. I don't care how green it is when almost the entire warranty period I'm in the red.