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On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that utility-grade solar panels have hit cost targets set for 2020, three years ahead of schedule. Those targets reflect around $1 per watt and 6¢ per kilowatt-hour in Kansas City, the department's mid-range yardstick for solar panel cost per unit of energy produced (New York is considered the high-cost end, and Phoenix, Arizona, which has much more sunlight than most other major cities in the country, reflects the low-cost end).
Those prices don't include an Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which makes solar panels even cheaper. The Energy Department said that the cost per watt was assessed in terms of total installed system costs for developers. That means the number is based on "the sales price paid to the installer; therefore, it includes profit in the cost of the hardware," according to a department presentation (PDF).
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a DOE-funded lab that assesses solar panel cost, wrote that, compared to the first quarter in 2016, the first quarter in 2017 saw a 29-percent decline in installed cost for utility-scale solar, which was attributed to lower photovoltaic module and inverter prices, better panel efficiency, and reduced labor costs. Despite the plummeting costs for utility-scale solar, costs for commercial and residential solar panels have not fallen quite as quickly—just 15 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
It seems there are still big gains to be made in the installed costs of residential panels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @03:50PM
excuse me, one number TODAY doesn't tell the whole story.
i can probably give you a solarpanel for 1 cent...but, tomorrow, it will not work anymore and the one day electricity will NOT have paid for the panel.
there's a real danger that (some) solar panel manufacturers know this and that overall, even if the panel lasts 10 years, the declining output efficiency
over time WILL NOT allow you to make a ... "profit".
i totally recommend to plan installations like a "bunker" for 20 years and invest in the "right" tech that doesn't have tons of typos in the user manual
and will last at least 20 years.
remember, this is stuff that is being deliberately exposed to grueling sunshine and punishing elements for a long long time!
so cheap TODAY, but is it still cheap in 20 years? not if it's broken it ain't ...
there might be a conspiracy to sell you cheap shit, ride the "green trend" only to disappoint in a few years so that people long for more reliability in the hands of the few (nuke plants for example).
i know FOR SURE of a south east asian country where the import requirements (taxes) are horrendous for european made (quality?) solarpanels but are non-existant for next-door-neighbour chinese manufactured panels ... the same country grudgely allowed to sell the electricity to the state owned electricity utility which most probably will fade-out due to all feed-in tariff installations using chinese stuff with a half life of 3-4 years ... t-hehehe.