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.
For instance, many residential customers finance their PV systems, but the benchmarks exclude financing costs, which can represent around 20% of reported market prices. For further research on the complexity of PV markets and reported market prices, see Gillingham et al. (2016) and Barbose et al. (2021a).
Co-locating the PV and storage subsystems produces cost savings by reducing costs related to site preparation, permitting and interconnection, installation labor, hardware (via sharing of hardware such as switchgears, transformers, and controls), overhead, and profit.
Commercial Li-ion Energy Storage System: Modeled Cost Parameters in Intrinsic Units Min. state of charge (SOC) and max. SOC a Note that, for all values given in per square meter (m2) terms, the denominator refers to square meters of battery pack footprint. The representative system has 80 kWh/m2.
The representative residential PV system (RPV) for 2024 has a rating of 8 kW dc (the sum of the system's module ratings). Each module has an area (with frame) of 1.9 m 2 and a rated power of 400 watts, corresponding to an efficiency of 21.1%.
The current MSP benchmarks for PV systems in 2022 real USD are $28.78/kWdc/yr (residential), $39.83/kWdc/yr (community solar), and $16.12/kWdc/yr (utility-scale, single-axis tracking). For MMP, the current benchmarks are $30.36/kWdc/yr (residential), $40.51/kWdc/yr (community solar), and $16.58/kWdc/yr (utility-scale, single-axis tracking).
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).
In the longer term, analysts expect the new rules to constrain PV-only deployment in California and ultimately spur the deployment of PV-plus-storage systems, which have higher upfront costs (Wood Mackenzie and SEIA 2022b). Our interviews also indicated market and policy trends affecting system costs between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023.
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