By Mark Bolinger & Samantha Weaver
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
September 2013
An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States
Large-scale solar projects in the United States have made great progress in delivering competitively priced renewable electricity.
The price at which electricity from large-scale solar power projects in the western united states is being sold has fallen by more than two-thirds in the last five years, according to a new report released today by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report—”Utility-Scale Solar 2012: An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States”—focuses exclusively on ground-mounted solar projects with capacity ratings greater than 2 MWAC. Such large-scale solar projects are commonly referred to as “utility-scale” solar.