Tracking the Sun III The Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the U.S. from 1998-2009

A more recent version of this report is now available here: https://emp.lbl.gov/tracking-the-sun. 

As the deployment of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has increased, so too has the desire to track the installed cost of these systems over time and by location, customer type, system characteristics, and component. This report helps to fill this need by summarizing trends in the installed cost1 of grid-connected PV systems in the United States from 1998 through 2009 (updating two previous reports with data through 2007 and 2008, respectively), and providing preliminary cost trends for systems installed in 2010. The analysis is based on installed cost data for approximately 78,000 residential and non-residential PV systems, totaling 874 megawatts (MW) and representing 70% of all grid-connected PV capacity installed in the United States through 2009.