The Solar Price Slump

Solar energy is becoming much cheaper all over the world according to a GTM Research study by solar analyst Ben Gallagher. He predicts that the price of constructing solar power technology will decrease by 4.4 percent each year, meaning that by 2022 the price of projects will have dropped by 27 percent. This decrease in cost is causing more countries to adopt solar power as a viable means of supplying energy.

Gallagher attributes the falling price to the globalization of the tools and resources needed to construct the systems — like the investors, labor cost, modules, and trackers — which has meant that “regional hardware pricing [has] been eroded by market forces,” he wrote in the study.

The leader in this global price decrease is India which, according to the report, can produce solar energy at 65 cents per watt. This is the lowest price of solar energy that the world has ever recorded, in any region.

Japan had the highest construction cost worldwide, although its costs are still falling overall, with each watt of energy costing around $2. The price of construction for Japan, therefore, is roughly double the U.S.’s $1.10 and the U.K.’s $1, which was the lowest priced solar power in western Europe.