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

The market for solar PV systems in the United States has grown rapidly over the past decade, as national, state and local governments offered various incentives to expand the solar market and accelerate cost reductions. The study—the fourth in Berkeley Lab’s “Tracking the Sun” report series—describes trends in the installed cost of PV in the United States, and examined more than 115,000 residential, commercial and utility-sector PV systems installed between 1998 and 2010 across 42 states, representing roughly 78 percent of all grid-connected PV capacity installed in the United States. Naïm Darghouth, also with Berkeley Lab, explains that “the study is intended to provide policy makers and industry observers with a reliable and detailed set of historical benchmarks for tracking and understanding past trends in the installed cost of PV.”