U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020
NREL's cost benchmark report documents installed costs for solar PV and PV-plus-storage systems as of the first quarter of 2020. It uses a bottom-up methodology that captures variation in system design, regional labor rates and soft costs. The report shows that the cost of residential, commercial and utility-scale PV systems fell 64%, 69% and 82% since 2010, driven by module efficiency improvements and falling hardware prices. It also introduces a levelized cost of solar-plus-storage metric (LCOSS) to benchmark PV-plus-storage systems, revealing declines in storage costs and highlighting that soft costs remain a persistent portion of total costs. The analysis guides researchers and policymakers on future cost-reduction opportunities.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - NREL's cost benchmark report documents installed costs for solar PV and PV-plus-storage systems as of the first quarter of 2020. It uses a bottom-up methodology that captures variation in system design, regional labor rates and soft costs. The report shows that the cost of residential, commercial and utility-scale PV systems fell 64%, 69% and 82% since 2010, driven by module efficiency improvements and falling hardware prices. It also introduces a levelized cost of solar-plus-storage metric (LCOSS) to benchmark PV-plus-storage systems, revealing declines in storage costs and highlighting that soft costs remain a persistent portion of total costs. The analysis guides researchers and policymakers on future cost-reduction opportunities.
AU - Feldman, David
A2 - Ramasamy, Vignesh
A3 - Fu, Ran
A4 - Ramdas, Ashwin
A5 - Desai, Jal
A6 - Margolis, Robert
DB - C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO -
KW - Solar
KW - Photovoltaics
KW - PV
KW - Battery energy storage
KW - Diesel generators
KW - Other liquid-fuel generators
KW - Wind energy
KW - Financing
KW - Business models
KW - Planning and design
KW - Planning
KW - Design
LA - English
DA - 2021/01/01
PY - 2021
PB - NLR
T1 - U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020
UR - https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6
ER -
Feldman, David, et al. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020. NLR, 1 January, 2021, C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6.
Feldman, D., Ramasamy, V., Fu, R., Ramdas, A., Desai, J., & Margolis, R. (2021). U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020. [Data set]. C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. NLR. https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6
Feldman, David, Vignesh Ramasamy, Ran Fu, Ashwin Ramdas, Jal Desai, and Robert Margolis. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020. NLR, January, 1, 2021. Distributed by C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange. https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6
@misc{CMIX_Dataset_6,
title = {U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020},
author = {Feldman, David and Ramasamy, Vignesh and Fu, Ran and Ramdas, Ashwin and Desai, Jal and Margolis, Robert },
abstractNote = {NREL's cost benchmark report documents installed costs for solar PV and PV-plus-storage systems as of the first quarter of 2020. It uses a bottom-up methodology that captures variation in system design, regional labor rates and soft costs. The report shows that the cost of residential, commercial and utility-scale PV systems fell 64\%, 69\% and 82\% since 2010, driven by module efficiency improvements and falling hardware prices. It also introduces a levelized cost of solar-plus-storage metric (LCOSS) to benchmark PV-plus-storage systems, revealing declines in storage costs and highlighting that soft costs remain a persistent portion of total costs. The analysis guides researchers and policymakers on future cost-reduction opportunities.},
url = {https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6},
year = {2021},
howpublished = {C-MIX - Community Microgrid Information Exchange, NLR, https://cmix.openei.org/submissions/6},
note = {Accessed: 2026-10-11}
}
Details
Data from Jan 1, 2021
Last updated Mar 30, 2026
Submitted Jun 2, 2026
Organization
NLR
Contact
David Feldman
Authors
