Are residential PV systems cheaper than last year?

Compared to last year's report, modeled market prices for installed residential PV systems were 15% lower this year.

How much does a PV system cost in 2023?

Q1 2023 U.S. PV-plus-storage cost benchmarks Our operations and maintenance (O&M) analysis breaks costs into various categories and provides total annualized O&M costs. The MSP results for PV systems (in units of 2022 real USD/kWdc/yr) are $28.78 (residential), $39.83 (community solar), and $16.12 (utility-scale).

What is PV and storage cost modeling?

This year, we introduce a new PV and storage cost modeling approach. The PV System Cost Model (PVSCM) was developed by SETO and NREL to make the cost benchmarks simpler and more transparent, while expanding to cover components not previously benchmarked.

Will California's New PV rules affect PV-plus-storage systems?

In the longer term, analysts expect the new rules to constrain PV-only deployment in California and ultimately spur the deployment of PV-plus-storage systems, which have higher upfront costs (Wood Mackenzie and SEIA 2022b). Our interviews also indicated market and policy trends affecting system costs between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023.

What is NREL's new bottom-up PV and storage cost model?

For this year's benchmark report, the Solar Energy Technologies Office developed a new bottom-up PV and storage cost model with NREL analysts to make the benchmarks simpler and more transparent—while expanding the model to address components not previously benchmarked.

How does the production tax credit affect PV systems?

The cost of any PV system—residential, commercial, or utility-scale—that uses domestically produced components is likely to be affected by the production tax credit. At one extreme, a U.S. manufacturer who receives the credit could pass the entire value to the buyer as a lower component price.