Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Costs Continue to Decline for Residential and Commercial Photovoltaics in 2018

NREL.gov
Costs Fall for Residential and Commercial Standalone PV

Specifically, the Q1 PV cost benchmarks are $2.70 per watt of direct current (Wdc) for residential systems (a 4.9 percent cost decline), $1.83 per Wdc for commercial systems (a 2.6 percent decrease), $1.06 per Wdc for fixed-tilt utility-scale systems (a 1.9 percent increase), and $1.13 per Wdc for one-axis-tracking utility-scale systems (a 0.9 percent increase).

“Higher-voltage inverter designs, lower inverter prices, and higher module efficiencies contributed to cost reductions,” said Ran Fu, who authored the report with fellow NREL researchers David Feldman, Mike Woodhouse, and Robert Margolis. On the other hand, higher module prices, higher labor wages, and higher steel prices raised costs. In the utility sector, where PV modules represent a larger portion of overall project costs, increased module prices helped to drive the slight increase in installed solar costs.

For the rest of the story visit : https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2018/costs-continue-to-decline-for-residential-and-commercial-photovoltaics-in-2018.html