How do market analysts evaluate the cost of PV systems?

Market analysts routinely monitor and report the average cost of PV systems and components, but more detail is needed to understand the impact of recent and future technology developments on cost. Consequently, benchmark systems in the utility-scale, commercial, and residential PV market sectors are evaluated each year.

What is the investment cost of storage systems?

The investment cost of the storage systems includes both energy and power costs. Additionally, to assess the environmental benefits of the planning optimization and operation optimization proposed in this paper, it is necessary to calculate the carbon emissions of the electricity consumed by the system.

What makes a PV system a market price?

Market prices can include items such as smaller-market-share PV systems (e.g., those with premium efficiency panels), atypical system configurations due to site irregularities (e.g., additional land grading) or customer preferences (e.g., pest traps), and specific project requirements (e.g., unionized labor).

Is a PV system better than a Bess system?

The primary conclusions drawn from the study are summarized below: (1) For various park load conditions, the indicators of a system with both PV and BESS are superior to those of systems with only one of them.

Which tax credits are based on the upfront cost of a PV system?

The credits for PV system owners are based either on the upfront cost of the system (Section 48/48E Investment Tax Credit or ITC) or the electricity generated by the system (Section 45(d)/45Y Production Tax Credit or PTC).

Do residential customers finance PV systems?

For instance, many residential customers finance their PV systems, but the benchmarks exclude financing costs, which can represent around 20% of reported market prices. For further research on the complexity of PV markets and reported market prices, see Gillingham et al. (2016) and Barbose et al. (2022).