American Solar Energy Society » bos http://www.ases.org Leading the Renewable Energy Revolution Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:24:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Lawrence Berkeley Lab Details Cost Differences Between German, U.S. PV Installs http://www.ases.org/lawrence-berkeley-lab-details-cost-differences-between-german-u-s-pv-installs/ http://www.ases.org/lawrence-berkeley-lab-details-cost-differences-between-german-u-s-pv-installs/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:16:36 +0000 Seth Masia http://ases.org/?p=9476 A new report from Lawrence Berkeley Lab asks the question “Why Are Residential PV Prices in Germany So  Much Lower Than in the U.S.?”  The report supports the premise of the new ASES Solar Freedom Now! campaign, which aims to slash “soft costs” of solar installations in the United States.

LBL Chart

The answers won’t surprise you. German installers reported average soft costs of $0.62 per watt in 2011, roughly $2.70 per lower than the average soft costs reported by U.S. installers.  Customer acquisition costs averaged just $0.07 per watt in Germany, roughly $0.60 per lower than in the U.S.
Labor costs were about $.55 per watt lower in Germany for equivalent systems.  Permitting, interconnection, and inspection (PII) processes required 10 hours of labor, on average, in Germany, with no permitting fee, resulting in PII costs roughly $0.20 per watt less than in the U.S. Read the full report:

http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/german-us-pv-price-ppt.pdf

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