Solar Panel Installations Soar as Prices Fall to an All-Time Low
More and more people are opting to have solar panels installed in their homes, offices, and other buildings as they recognize the potential savings and environmental benefits there are to be made.
More and more people are opting to have solar panels installed in their homes, offices, and other buildings as they recognize the potential savings and environmental benefits there are to be made. It’s because of this rise in demand that firms have been able to sell them cheaper than ever before and are now at an all-time low, allowing, even more, people to reap the benefits.
There are two separate Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory Reports that offer a detailed analysis of the lowering prices in solar panels. The first is called Tracking the Sun IX and is centered around installed pricing trends in the rooftop solar market and the second is entitled Utility-Scale Solar 2015 and focuses on large-scale solar farms that deal with bulk power supplies. Both reports show a significant fall in prices in installed solar technologies since 2010.
The installed price of solar technologies takes into consideration everything that is needed to get the solar system running effectively such as the panels, electronics, and hardware. Estimates suggest that the cost of solar installation has fallen consistently at around 5 percent per year since 2012. Even though both commercial and residential solar installation prices fell there is still a huge difference in the price they both pay comparably. When looking at residential systems, the cost ranges between $3.30 and $5.00 per watt, while commercial users pay between $1.60 and $2.60 per watt approximately.
According to the reports, the price of solar power purchase agreements (PPA’s) has also fallen to below $50 per megawatt-hour in four out of the five areas that were examined. Currently, the cost of electricity is around $30-$40 per megawatt-hour, so the gap is closing in between the two. Also, with the extension of the federal renewable energy investment tax credit to run until 2019, this should push solar sales even further and will force prices down to match.
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Owen Castellanos
Owen Castellanos is the Hardware & Gaming Reporter at TrendinTech, where he tests graphics cards, processors, consoles and peripherals and follows the games industry, from the major publishers to independent studios. He previously wrote reviews and benchmarks for Tom's Hardware and contributed features to PC Gamer, covering everything from laptop testing to the economics of game development. Owen holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and attends CES in Las Vegas, Computex in Taipei and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco each year to meet chipmakers and developers. He writes for readers who want to know whether a product is worth the money, and he is not shy about saying when it is not.
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