According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) annual price benchmarking analysis, the cost of PV and solar-storage in the US has risen year-on-year.
Based on 2021 prices, large ground-mounted PV rose to $0.99/Wdc in the first quarter of 2022, 6% higher than the same period last year. Large-scale ground-mounted PV-storage systems rose 11% year-on-year to $195 million. As discussed on PV Tech's sister site Energy-Storage, the cost of standalone energy storage rose 13%.
The analysis assumes a benchmark of 100MWdc for large ground-mounted PV projects using single-sided monocrystalline modules with an efficiency of 20.3%. The benchmark for solar-storage is an additional 60MWdc/240MWh of cells in a standardised PV system.
These figures are based on NREL's Modelled Market Price (MMP), which is the actual cost of PV systems installed by developers in Q1 2021 - Q1 2022.
To mitigate the impact of market turbulence in the first quarter of 2022, the NREL report adds an alternative theoretical pricing model
The second model introduced, the Minimum Sustainable Price (MSP), is designed to minimise the impact of market volatility and uncertainty that will occur in the first quarter of 2022, focusing on a sustainable, theoretical long-term price model.
Based on MSP parameter values, the MSP is US$0.87/Wdc for large ground-mounted PV projects, which is 14% lower than the MMP benchmark. The MSP for solar-storage systems is USD 170 million, 15% lower than the MMP.
Meanwhile, prices for residential and commercial PV systems have also increased. Compared to the first quarter of 2021, prices for residential PV systems increased by 2% and commercial ground/rooftop systems by 8%.
Residential solar-storage systems increased by 6% year-on-year, the report said, but "significant changes in system configurations" from Q1 2021 - Q1 2022 prevented a comparison of commercial solar-storage systems.
NREL acknowledges that the forecasts and results of the benchmark study do not reflect all market stakeholders due to the volatility of market events in the first quarter of 2022. Documented supply chain issues in the US (e.g. anti-dumping/countervailing tariff investigations), the global energy response to the war in Russia and Ukraine and the inability of polysilicon supply to meet demand all drove overall price increases.
The benchmark analysis does not include the Inflation Reduction Act, introduced in August, which set aside US$369 billion for decarbonisation efforts.