U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks, With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis: Q1 2022 details installed costs for PV and storage systems as of the first quarter (Q1) of 2022. Prices soared throughout the U.S. economy between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022, for the PV and energy storage markets in particular.
The benchmarks are bottom-up cost estimates of all major inputs to typical PV and energy storage system configurations and installation practices. Bottom-up costs are based on national averages and do not necessarily represent typical costs in all local markets.
These benchmarks are bottom-up cost estimates of all aspects of PV and energy storage system installations. Many of the trends that characterized the 2022 benchmarks—including high and volatile component prices and competition for limited supplies—appeared to lessen in 2023.
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.
Q1 2022 U.S. benchmark: 7.9-kWdc residential PV system cost (2021 USD/Wdc) This section describes our commercial PV model’s structure and parameters in intrinsic units (Section 6.1) as well as its output (Section 6.2).
The MSP benchmarks for PV-plus-storage systems (in 2022 real USD/kWdc/yr) are $61.28 (residential), $75.25 (community solar), and $50.73 (utility-scale). For MMP, the benchmarks are $65.04 (residential), $76.79 (community solar), and $51.88 (utility-scale).