Installed cost of US photovoltaics dropping, according to report

21 October 2009

The cost of installation of solar photovoltaic technology in the US fell in 2008, according to a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report summarises trends in the installed cost of grid-connected solar systems in the US over a ten-year period.

The analysis is based on installed cost data from 71 per cent of all grid-connected solar capacity in the US, which is more than 52,000 residential and non-residential solar systems and totals 566MW.

The report suggests that the decline in installed costs from 2007 to 2008 is largely attributable largely to a reduction in module costs. In contrast, the decline in total installed costs from 1998 to 2005 is associated primarily with a reduction in non-module costs, which may include items such as inverters, other balance of systems, hardware, labour, and overhead.

Findings also suggest that long-term reductions in installed cost are most evident for systems of under 100KW, with systems under 5KW exhibiting the largest absolute reduction.

Click here to read the full report

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was founded in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence and is a member of the national laboratory system supported by the US Department of Energy through its Office of Science. The laboratory, which is located near San Francisco Bay, is managed by the University of California and employs around 4,000 scientists, engineers support staff and students. Its budget in 2008 was approximately $600m. For more information visit its website at http://www.lbl.gov/LBL-PID/LBL-Overview.html

This story was published on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 3:42 pm and is filed under knowledge. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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