US installed PV prices slip 6-14% in 2012, keep falling in 2013 - Berkeley Lab

Aug 13, 2013 - The price of photovoltaic (PV) systems installed in the US in 2012 fell by 6%-14% on 2011 or by USD 0.30-0.90 (EUR 0.23-0.68) per watt, marking the third consecutive year of notable price drops, a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows.

The decrease is mainly the result of a plunge in solar module prices, which was the reason for about 80% of the total drop in installed PV prices in the 2008-2012 period.

According to the latest annual PV cost tracking report by the lab, which is controlled by the US Department of Energy, the installed price per watt is still on the slide in 2013. In the first half of 2013, it further declined by 10%-15% in California, for example. Report co-author Galen Barbose noted that the PV system price drop this year is likely to match or even surpass the decline in the past few years.

In 2012, the median installed price per watt was USD 5.30 for residential and small commercial PV systems of up to 10 kW, and USD 4.60 per watt for commercial systems larger than 100 kW. At the same time, costs for utility-scale PV systems of over 10 MW fell to between USD 2.50 and USD 4 per watt.

According to the study, the price of some 20% of all below-10-kW PV systems completed last year was no more than USD 4.50 per watt, whereas another 20% were priced above USD 6.50 per watt. This variability is explained by the different pricing in different US states, where the median installed price of those PV systems was between USD 3.90-5.90 per watt.

The Tracking the Sun report covers over 200,000 residential, commercial and utility-scale PV facilities installed between 1998 and 2012.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.752)

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