Many factors including government policies fossil fuel costs solar energy technology advances commodity prices and even public awareness of the climate crisis impact.
Solar panel price trend graph.
The long term trend shows that solar panel prices are consistently falling.
To power 13 5 million homes and this amount is expected to double in the next five years.
As of fall 2019 nearly 250 000 americans work in solar more than double the number in 2012 at more than 10 000 companies in every u s.
The solar industry even has its own name swanson s law for the falling price of solar panels.
In 2019 the solar industry generated 18 7 billion of investment in the american economy.
There are two main types of panels.
Solar companies can typically get a single solar panel at a price of 0 75 per watt.
National data september 2020.
Solar as an economic engine.
However solarreviews handles more than 1 000 quote requests per day and the current average price we see on our marketplace is 2 53 per watt.
To make the chart enf calls over 100 panel manufacturers certified with iec61215 or iec61730 to check their price each month.
This article was updated on 1 7 2020.
The most recent official data from the doe funded lawrence berkeley labs published in september 2019 found that the median cost of residential solar panels is 3 70 watt.
With higher efficiency government incentives and improved technology the prices of residential solar panels continued to plummet particularly over the past decade.
The price decreases over the past ten years are a major reason why homeowners are increasingly interested in installing solar panels.
What are the price trends for solar panels.
The solar energy industry is part of a very dynamic market.
The chart below shows the cost to purchase an off grid system with an appropriately sized battery bank.
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.
Back in 1977 the price of solar photovoltaic cells was 77 for just one watt of power.
Popularized in a 2012 article in the economist swanson s law states that solar panel prices tend to decrease by 20 for every doubling of worldwide panel shipments.
Therefore if the solar panel output is 250 watts that single panel might cost you 187 50.
Decline in price of residential solar since 2000.
This chart tracks the price that chinese panel manufacturers are selling their crystalline panels for.
In the real world this works out to about a 10 cost decrease each year.
Changes in solar panel cost over time can be explained by swanson s law which states that the price of solar pv modules decreases by about 20 percent for every doubling in global solar capacity the law is named after richard swanson founder of high.
There is now enough installed solar energy capacity in the u s.
Ten years ago a residential photovoltaic system could cost more than 50 000 00.
Today it s around 0 13 per watt or about 600 times less.
The cost has generally been following swanson s law which states that the price of solar drops by 20 for every doubling of shipped product.
