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

September 20, 2011

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."