Prices for residential solar installations are hovering around an all-time low, said marketplace platform EnergySage in its upcoming Marketplace Report.
Average prices on the EnergySage platform were $2.69 per watt for the first half of 2024, declining 4% from the second half of 2023. This is only 1% higher than the all-time low of $2.67 per watt in the first half of 2021, when U.S. residential solar experienced one of its largest growth cycles in history.
EnergySage operates a Solar Calculator that helps solar shoppers determine the potential benefits of solar on their home.
This marks the second consecutive six month period in which costs have fallen, following 2.5 years of cost increases amid pandemic-related supply chain constraints, said EnergySage.
“Steady supply and cooling demand stemming from policy changes like California’s net billing tariff and high interest rates are the likely drivers of the most recent price cuts,” said the report.
The report noted that nationwide, battery energy storage is increasingly being selected by customers in their solar projects. Storage attachment rates tripled year over year to 34% of solar projects nationwide in the first half of 2024.
Storage prices reached an all-time low of $1,133 per kWh. Coupled with net metering changes and more weather-related outages, the price drop is likely driving more customers to adopt storage than ever before, said EnergySage.