Per this year’s benchmarking, residential and commercial systems are 93% and 97% toward achieving the 2020 targets of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and 8 cents/kWh, respectively. Utility systems, which met 2020 price targets three years early, are progressing towards SETO’s 2030 target for utility systems of 3 cents/kWh.
[pdf] The requires all public electric utilities to facilitate . This allows homes and businesses performing to pay only the net cost of electricity from the grid: electricity used minus electricity produced locally and sent back into the grid. For sources this effectively uses the grid as a to smooth over lulls and fill in.
[pdf] Many NREL manufacturing cost analyses use a bottom-up modeling approach. The costs of materials, equipment, facilities, energy, and labor associated with each step in the production process are individually modeled. Input data for this analysis method are collected through primary interviews with PV manufacturers and. .
Since 2010, NREL has been conducting bottom-up manufacturing cost analysis for certain technologies—with new technologies added. .
Photovoltaic (PV) Module Technologies: 2020 Benchmark Costs and Technology Evolution Framework Results, NREL Technical Report (2021). .
Watch these videos to learn about NREL's techno-economic analysis (TEA) approach and cost modeling for PV technologies. They're part of NREL's Solar TEA Tutorials video series.
[pdf]