Why Have Solar Panels Dropped In Price

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Why have solar panels dropped in price.

In the power industry the rule of thumb for the average market price of electricity is about 30 to 40 per megawatt hour so solar is poised to match the price of conventional power generation. The price of solar has dropped by an incredible amount. Prices dropped 76 percent for solar panels and 34 percent for turbines during that time making them competitive alternatives to fossil fuels and more traditional low carbon energy sources such as hydropower and nuclear. Prices have dropped more than 60 percent in the past several years with the average upfront cost for the commonly used 6 kw system landing between 16 200 21 420.

The numbers are based on the so called levelized cost of electricity a method of calculating the cost per unit of power that. Solar companies can typically get a single solar panel at a price of 0 75 per watt. Therefore if the solar panel output is 250 watts that single panel might cost you 187 50. Trends have continued until recently with a report from the nrel that showed the price per watt of solar energy dropped by 27 in the first quarter of 2017 alone.

The more solar panels there are the better manufacturers become at making them and the cheaper they become to ship. Research from mit shows that over the past 40 years the price of photovoltaic modules have dropped by. However if a homeowner is trying to buy one or two panels on their own for a small diy project they will likely pay closer to 1 per watt. The figure cited in a report this week from lawrence berkeley national laboratory.

Today it s around 0 13 per watt or about 600 times less. According to swanson s law whenever the production and shipment of solar panels doubles panel prices drop by 20 percent. How much have solar energy prices fallen. Back in 1977 the price of solar photovoltaic cells was 77 for just one watt of power.

The dramatic drop in the cost of solar photovoltaic pv modules which has fallen by 99 percent over the last four decades is often touted as a major success story for renewable energy technology. Analysts have even developed an explanatory model swanson s law to explain the phenomenon.