National data september 2020.
Historic solar panel graph cost.
Bloomberg new energy finance bnef.
The solar industry today looks very different.
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.
In addition to solar panel efficiency increasing dramatically solar panel producers have significantly improved their manufacturing processes.
A tale of falling prices.
Panel prices increased about 20 in early 2018 about the same time that the us took steps to implement tariffs on imported solar panels but since then have resumed their downward trajectory.
Over a decade ago in 2009 the cost of a solar panel installation was 8 50 per watt.
The average cost of solar panels has gone from 76 67 watt in 1977 to just 0 698 watt today the second figure is according to pvinsights and is even lower than the 2013 projected price in the chart below.
Cost of solar panels over time.
In 2010 solar panels cost about 2 50 per watt but by early 2017 that had fallen to just 0 38 per watt.
However solarreviews handles more than 1 000 quote requests per day and the current average price we see on our marketplace is 2 60 per watt.
Prices have dropped more than 60 percent in the past several years with the average upfront cost for the commonly used 6 kw system landing between 16 200 21 420.
Ten years ago a residential photovoltaic system could cost more than 50 000 00.