The cost of deploying solar power systems has dropped by 18 percent in 2010 and by 11 percent during the first six months of 2011, the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) reports. The decline in overall installation cost is especially due to the decrease of photovoltaic module cost.

“Wholesale PV module prices have fallen precipitously since about 2008, and those upstream cost reductions have made their way through to consumers,” said Galen Barbose of Berkeley Lab. However, a drop in secondary, non-module cost in industrial applications are also seen as critical as “those are the costs that can be most readily influenced by solar policies aimed at accelerating deployment and removing market barriers,” stated Berkeley Lab scientist Ryan Wiser.

Large-scale solar system cost with projects that are greater than 5000 kW came in at $2.90 to $6.20 per watt in 2010, depending on the size and project type. The 2011 number seems to be in the range of $3.80/watt to $4.40/watt, Berkeley Lab said. Utility scale systems with a size of greater than 1000 kW cost an average of $5.20 in 2010, while the cost in 2011 appears to have fallen into the $3/watt to $4/watt range. Residential solar system with a size of up to 2 kW cost about $9.80/watt, according the Berkeley Lab.

However, the reduction of federal, state, and utility incentives in 2010 somewhat offset the decline in installed costs. The decline in post-incentive installed costs fell by $0.40/watt for residential solar systems and by $0.80/watt for commercial solar systems, Berkeley Lab said.

SOURCE via Berkeley Lab