US PV system installation costs fall 11% Y/Y in H1 2011

Sep 16, 2011 - Average photovoltaic (PV) system installation costs in the US dropped by 11% in the first half of 2011, after dropping by 17% on the year in 2010, showed the latest research of the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

The new edition of LBNL's annual PV cost tracking report named Tracking the Sun IV: An Historical Summary of the Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2010, attributes the decline in system installation costs partly to the considerable cuts in PV module prices.

The report notes also that average non-module costs for residential and commercial solar systems decreased by 18% year-on-year in 2010. Berkeley Lab scientist and report's co-author Ryan Wiser explains that the fall in non-module costs is important as these costs can be the most impacted by policies promoting the solar power sector.

Installed costs varied by region and by system capacity and installation type.

The US market for solar PV systems has surged in the past decade thanks to government incentives, but the reduced value of subsidies in 2010 partly offset the drop in installation costs. As a result, pre-installed costs fell by USD 1 (EUR 0.725) per watt for residential and USD 1.50 per watt for commercial PV in 2010, while net or post-incentive installed costs declined by USD 0.40 for residential and USD 0.80 per watt for commercial PV, the report estimates.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.725)

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