NREL: From 2020 to 2021, the cost of solar and energy storage power plants in the US will decrease (data attached)

　　Between 2020 and 2021, the installation costs of solar photovoltaic, solar-energy storage, and stand-alone battery energy storage in all market segments in the United States have fallen. Among them, the utility sector has the largest decline.

　　The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has just released the latest annual benchmark report on the cost of solar photovoltaic and energy storage in the United States.

　　The report uses a bottom-up approach, considers the development costs of all systems and projects, and compares the installation costs of various technologies from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021. NREL's model and benchmark costs cover residential, commercial and public solar, solar + energy storage and independent energy storage

　　Researchers found that the cost of a 100MW utility single-axis solar power station dropped from US$1.02/Wdc to US$0.89/Wdc, a decrease of 12.31%. The installation cost of a 60MW/240MWh stand-alone battery energy storage system (BESS) dropped from $437/kWh to $379/kWh, a decrease of 13.14%.

　　Figure ES-1. Comparison of Q1 2020 and Q1 2021 PV cost benchmarks BOS is balance of system; PII is permitting, inspection, and interconnection.

　　The report studied the DC coupling and AC coupling configurations of solar energy storage projects. The cost of a utility photovoltaic + BESS system (100MW photovoltaic and 60MW/240MWh BESS DC coupling) dropped from 190 million US dollars to 168 million US dollars, a decrease of 11.55 percent. For AC-coupled systems with the same power generation, output and capacity, the cost has dropped from US$190 million to US$167 million, a slightly larger drop of 12.26%.

　　Table ES-2. Q1 2021 PV and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks

　　At the same time, for commercial projects, the cost of DC-coupled solar energy storage has dropped by 9.25%, the cost of AC-coupled solar energy storage has dropped by 9.48%, the cost of solar photovoltaic power generation has dropped by 10.71%, and the cost of independent BESS has dropped. 10.65%.

　　The scale model of the commercial system is: pure solar photovoltaic project 200kW, 1MW solar photovoltaic with 600kW/2400kWh battery or 600kW/2400kWh independent battery energy storage.

　　The cost of the home version of the standalone BESS has also seen a similar sharp drop. A 5kW/12.5kWh system has dropped by 9.68%, but the installation cost of a 22-module pure household photovoltaic system has only dropped by 3.25%. The cost of the DC-coupled residential solar-energy storage system dropped by 5.79%, while the cost of the AC-coupled residential solar-energy storage system dropped by only 3.39%.

　　Currently, companies in the entire solar energy value chain and companies in many other unrelated industries are experiencing global supply chain problems. After the COVID epidemic, the battery energy storage industry has also begun to feel these problems.

　　At the same time, including trade tariffs imposed on modules imported to the United States and price fluctuations of polysilicon, due to these solar supply chain problems, coupled with dynamic changes in the global industry, next year's report may be difficult to predict price trends.

　　Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate battery is a perfect replacement for lead-acid batteries, and it is the first choice for grid-connected peak shaving, off-grid energy storage, photovoltaic energy storage, UPS, data center and other industries.

　　Solar power generation system with lithium battery energy storage system is a very promising clean energy.