Today, EnergySage released its twelfth semiannual Solar Marketplace Intel Report, which is based on millions of transaction-level data points generated within the EnergySage Solar Marketplace throughout 2020. This report tracks the evolving pricing, equipment, and consumer preference trends shaping today’s U.S. residential solar industry, and serves as a leading indicator of where the market is headed in 2021.
“In 2020, people spent more time in their homes, but they also spent more on their homes,” said EnergySage CEO and founder Vikram Aggarwal. “At the same time, the consumer mindset has shifted, with interest in resiliency increasing significantly, whether due to the uncertainty of COVID-19, the wildfires and power shut offs in the West, major storm events in the East, or, most recently, the winter storm in Texas. We’re excited — and proud — that the solar and storage industries are helping consumers to become more resilient and keep the lights on under any circumstances.”
Key insights from the latest Solar Marketplace Intel Report include:
H2 2020 saw the largest drop in solar prices since 2017:
Quoted solar prices dropped by 3.5% on EnergySage between H1 2020 and H2 2020, the largest decrease since the first half of 2017. In fact, the percent of quotes below $2.50 per watt nearly doubled between the first and second half of the year on EnergySage.
Installers are quick to quote the newest equipment:
As evidenced by a jump in higher wattage solar panels quoted on EnergySage, solar companies are quick to learn about — and begin to sell — the newest technology available on the market: while two-thirds of quotes included sub-330-watt panels in H2 2019, 330 W–and larger–panels accounted for 69% of all quotes in H2 2020.
LG Energy Solutions overtook Tesla as the most quoted storage brand in Q4 2020:
In Q4 2020, nearly 40% of quotes on EnergySage included LG Energy Solutions, making it the most quoted storage brand on EnergySage. Tesla remained the least expensive storage option quoted. Batteries that utilize lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry are quoted at much higher prices than batteries with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry on EnergySage.
The latest report can be downloaded for free at: www.energysage.com/data/#intel-12. For questions and feedback, please contact data@energysage.com.
News item from EnergySage
Solarman says
The NMC high voltage energy storage vs the basically 48VDC LiFePO4 low voltage energy storage is the ongoing argument. IF you already have a high voltage string to grid tied house inverter, one has some options. Tie the D.C. string buss into the high voltage ESS and actually continue the grid tied with high voltage buss after solar PV peak generation after the sun goes down. One could replace the grid tied house inverter(s) with an interactive grid inverter, but right now I can’t think of any high D.C. voltage inverters, most are 48VDC based. This is probably due to the 48VDC buss is much less thermal runaway prone than the 300 to 400VDC energy storage system.
As for TESLA, when Circuit City was brought under the roof of the TESLA brand, the regional territories of the former Solar City were contracted and TESLA pulled out of a lot of areas where they installed systems and promised things like (we will warranty your system for 30 years), any repairs or replacements will be taken care of during this time. When Solar City pulled out, these people were left high and dry in many regions. This does not a life long customer make. Lately TESLA has been pushing solar roof tile systems. Then recently some of those quoted for a solar PV tile roof were told their cost would be about double, what was previously quoted. First, it was buy a TESLA power wall or a ‘few’ TESLA power walls and now there’s this childish rant online. TESLA will sell a power wall to any one who wants one, then the reply is “No, TESLA only sells packaged solar PV + ESS systems.” Over and over again, I see posts that TESLA is slow in getting their systems installed in the areas they do service.
Energy Sage, will install an LG system for you, Sonnen will gladly sell you their 48VDC system for your daily energy needs, GENERAC will gladly install their PWRCell for you, TESLAs not the only game in town. By some of the comments online, TESLA may not be available in your region either. Right now one of the players in solar PV ESS Kyocera is planning on releasing an energy storage system using licensed 24M slurry battery technology that can be designed with 350Wh/kg of energy density. This would make a typical ESS that is 10kWh about 20kWh for the same battery volume.