After a challenging but record-breaking year in 2023 for U.S. residential solar installations, the first six months of 2024 were characterized by near-record-low solar prices, persistently high interest rates, surging homeowner demand for storage and shifting shopper motivations. These factors, along with recent interest rate cuts, suggest the industry is at a turning point, with the potential for lower solar and storage pricing, higher-quality equipment, and better financing options in the second half of the year. This is according to EnergySage, which today released its 19th “Solar & Storage Marketplace Report.” This semiannual report analyzes homeowner shopping transactions on the EnergySage marketplace.
Other key findings of the latest report include:
Residential solar prices approach all-time lows, while storage prices have reached new record lows. Solar prices fell for the second six-month period in a row, reaching $2.69/W and nearing the all-time lowest quoted prices EnergySage has seen since it began tracking data in 2014. Quoted storage prices also dropped, setting a record low of $1,133/kWh.
“We’re at a pivotal moment for solar pricing, where ongoing cost reductions are enabling more homeowners to make the switch to clean energy,” said Spencer Fields, EnergySage’s director of insights. “The combination of near-record low prices and more consumer-friendly financing options is creating new opportunities for wider adoption.”
Storage attachment rate skyrockets nationwide. The percentage of homeowners nationwide purchasing a battery with their solar panels climbed to 34% in the first half of 2024. California was a key driver, with an attachment rate of 70% following the implementation of the Net Billing Tariff in April 2023. However, the attachment rate outside California also rose steeply to 22%. For the first time, the report includes highlights from a resiliency survey and a product interest survey, featuring insights on battery interest, setup and consumer satisfaction.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in storage adoption, driven by evolving policies, lower lithium prices, and consumer demand for energy resilience,” said Emily Walker, senior research analyst at EnergySage. “The high attachment rates across the country signal that more homeowners are prioritizing energy independence alongside solar as they become more economical.”
Installers are quoting higher-interest rate, lower-cost loan products. From H2 2023 to H1 2024, the median interest rate in quotes increased from 5.5% to 7.49%, while the average loan fee dropped from 47% to 40%, respectively. The most-quoted loan product in H1 2024 was a 7.99%, 20-year loan with no fees, driving the spike in the median interest rate and drop in average loan fee.
“EnergySage was created to drive maximum transparency and help consumers find high-quality suppliers on our platform,” said Charlie Hadlow, president and COO of EnergySage. “This report is just one piece of that puzzle and serves to help industry stakeholders separate the signal from the noise and fact from fiction. With high-profile solar bankruptcies like SunPower and Titan Solar Power, along with more attention on a subset of players using aggressive sales tactics, EnergySage’s approach has never been more crucial to the sustainable growth of these industries.”
News item from EnergySage
““We’re at a pivotal moment for solar pricing, where ongoing cost reductions are enabling more homeowners to make the switch to clean energy,” said Spencer Fields, EnergySage’s director of insights. “The combination of near-record low prices and more consumer-friendly financing options is creating new opportunities for wider adoption.””
The “thing” here is one doesn’t see published the well worn “electric utility death spiral” much now and, yet, it still exists. The (proof) is the many rate case increases being filed with AHJs across the U.S. by electric utilities asking for electricity rate increases for “lost revenues” and filing rate cases for TOU programs where electric rates are “spiked” for a [few hours] daily. California is the poster child of the TOU, as such it is here where one finds that typical 5 hours of the TOU rates can add up to about half of one’s monthly electric bill cost. In these cases the residential smart BESS is more important than even the solar PV as a daily energy cost reduction. It is California’s practice of TOU AND PSPS that pushes the narrative of the importance of a BESS unit in every home, even if one doesn’t have solar PV on their roofs.
Now that the ‘tide’ of the NEM is morphing into the NEB moving from 1:1 retail energy rates per excess kWh pushed back onto the grid to NEB where “energy credits” are “priced” at the wholesale electricity rate has decreased credit amounts to 1/3rd to 1/5th the previous NEM energy credit amount. One is better off storing off peak electricity and using it during the TOU period and having a smart BESS allows one to address the PSPS and at least still have minimal power available during a grid outage.