For comparison, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2021 Annual Technology Baseline report predicts that solar PV modules will reach US$170 per kW, US$190 per kW and US$320 per kW by 2030 in advanced, moderate and conservative improvement scenarios, respectively 19.
As solar PV technology made rapid progress closer to the 2020 targets, the SETO committed to reaching new cost targets for the upcoming decade, supporting greater energy affordability by reducing the cost of solar electricity by an additional 50% between 2020 and 2030.
Once accredited with the Clean Energy Council, solar PV installations are eligible for government rebates such as Small-scale Technology Certificates and feed-in tarifs.
This report clearly points out that solar PV is one of the strategic renewable technologies needed to realise the global energy transformation in line with the Paris climate goals. The technology is available now, could be deployed quickly at a large scale and is cost-competitive.
In the REmap analysis 100% electricity access is foreseen by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, and solar PV would be the major contributor to this achievement. costs are expected to reduce further, outpacing fossil fuels by 2020 (IRENA, 2019f).
Using nation-specific, component-level price data and global PV installation and silicon price data, we estimate learning rates for solar PV modules in the three largest solar-deploying countries (China, Germany and the United States) between 2006 and 2020 using a two-factor learning model.