The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) aims to accelerate the advancement and deployment of solar technology in support of an equitable transition to a decarbonized economy no later than 2050, starting with a decarbonized power sector by 2035. Its approach to achieving this goal includes driving innovations in technology, hardware, and soft cost reductions to make solar affordable and accessible for all. As part of this effort, SETO must track solar cost trends so it can focus its research and development (R&D) on the highest-impact activities. The benchmarks in this report are bottom-up cost estimates of all major inputs to PV and energy storage system installations. Bottom-up costs are based on national averages and do not necessarily represent typical costs in all local markets. Like last year's report, this year's report includes two distinct sets of benchmarks: minimum sustainable price (MSP) benchmarks and modeled market price (MMP) benchmarks. MSP benchmarks can be interpreted as the minimum price a company needs to charge to remain financially solvent in the long term based on the minimum sustainable prices of all inputs including minimum sustainable profit margins. MMP benchmarks can be interpreted as the actual cash sales price a company charges in the given benchmark period. These simplified estimates are useful for tracking technological progress, but they do not reflect all experiences. In fact, no individual estimate under any approach can reflect the diversity of the PV and storage manufacturing and installation industries.
Name | Size | Type | Resource Description | History |
---|---|---|---|---|
PVSCM Q1-2023 | 191 KB | Document | This file is password protected to preserve base parameters. View overnight installation cost results for residential, community, and utility-scale systems by clicking the "Load" button and selecting the relevant .txt file attached here. Include or exclude ESS and indirect costs using the menus in cells H6 and H7. It also contains macros which must be enabled to load the accompanying txt files. To do so: 1) Open Windows File Explorer and go to the folder where you saved the file. 2) Right-click the file and choose Properties from the context menu. 3) At the bottom of the General tab, select the Unblock checkbox and select OK. | |
Residential Sector Parameters | 8 KB | Document | Residential Sector Parameters | |
Commercial (Community Solar) Sector Parameters | 9 KB | Document | Commercial (Community Solar) Sector Parameters | |
Utility Sector Parameters | 9 KB | Document | Utility Sector Parameters |
Ramasamy, Vignesh, Jarett Zuboy, David Feldman, Robert Margolis, Jal Desai, Andy Walker, Michael Woodhouse, Eric O'Shaughnessy, and Paul Basore. 2023. "Q1 2023 U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis Data File." NREL Data Catalog. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Last updated: January 16, 2025. DOI: 10.7799/2002868.