Utility-scale solar installations
The installed price of solar energy in the US is continuing to decrease steadily, but is still considerably more expensive than it is throughout much of Europe, according to the most recent Tracking the Sun report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).That report — Tracking the Sun VII — utilized data from more than 300,000 different residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar installations to deduce the current installed price of solar across the US. Altogether, the sample size accounts for roughly 80% of the US grid’s total solar PV capacity through 2013.
That report — Tracking the Sun VII — utilized data from more than 300,000 different residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar installations to deduce the current installed price of solar across the US. Altogether, the sample size accounts for roughly 80% of the US grid’s total solar PV capacity through 2013.
There are other things worth noting though, including the previously mentioned reality that, even with the price falling, solar is still far more expensive in the US than it is in most of Europe. Here are the figures on that subject from the report: “The median installed price of residential PV installations in 2013 was just $2.1/W in Germany, $2.7/W in the United Kingdom, $2.9/W in Italy, and $4.0/W in France, compared to $4.4/W in the United States.”