Solar Installed System Cost Analysis

NLR analyzes the total costs associated with installing photovoltaic (PV) systems for residential rooftop, commercial rooftop, and utility-scale ground-mount systems. This work has grown to include cost models for solar-plus-storage systems.

Through 2022, benchmarks were developed using bottom-up cost models. Beginning in 2023, installed system cost benchmarks have been produced using the PV System Cost Benchmark (PVSCB) framework. Since 2024, this work has been conducted as a DOE-led joint laboratory effort, in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, using the PVSCB framework. 

NLR's bottom-up cost modeling methodology, shown here for residential PV systems, considers a wide set of factors and many interactions between them.

Techno-Economic Analysis Tools 

NLR conducts levelized cost of energy (LCOE) analysis for photovoltaic and battery system technologies to help researchers understand the impacts of their work. NLR has some LCOE tools that are publicly available. 

Levelized Cost of Energy Calculator
The calculator helps PV researchers with limited knowledge of costs and markets to quickly estimate how their ideas might influence LCOE. It also helps researchers examine trade-offs between cost and performance.

System Advisor Model
The model is used for more detailed, project specific analyses.

Datasets

Q1 – 2025 Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmarks, NLR Dataset (2025)

Q1 – 2024 Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmarks,  U.S. Department of Energy Dataset (2025)

Publications

Documenting 15 Years of Reductions in U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Costs, NLR Technical Report (2025)

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks, With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis: Q1 2023, NLR Technical Report (2023)

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks, With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis: Q1 2022, NLR Technical Report (2022)

Floating Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2021 Installations on Artificial Water Bodies, NLR Technical Report (2021)

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2021, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Find more solar manufacturing cost analysis publications.

Webinar

Documenting a Decade of PV Cost Declines (2021)

Tutorial

Watch this video tutorial to learn how NLR analysts use a bottom-up methodology to model all system and project development costs for different PV systems. It's Part 3 of NLR's Solar Techno-Economic Analysis Tutorials video series. This video was produced when the laboratory operated as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The laboratory is now the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR).

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