The U.S. construction costs for solar generation continued to decrease in the past years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Tuesday.
According to data from EIA, average costs for solar photovoltaic generators in the United States have fallen by 37 percent from 2013 to 2017.
EIA also said that costs for onshore wind turbines and natural gas generators have reduced by 13 percent and 4.7 percent for the same period.
These three generation technologies accounted for more than 97 percent of total capacity added to the grid in the United States in 2017. Total investment in U.S. electric generating capacity in 2017 decreased by 27 percent from the previous year.
EIA found that the decrease in the cost of solar photovoltaics was a result of falling costs in crystalline silicon axis-based tracking panels, which saw their lowest average construction cost of 2,135 U.S. dollars per kilowatt (kW) in 2017.
According to EIA, solar photovoltaic generators accounted for a larger share of all new electricity generation construction costs in the United States in 2017, accounting for 37 percent of total investment. In 2017, U.S. developers spent nearly 12 billion U.S. dollars in construction costs on solar photovoltaic plants and added 5.0 gigawatts (GW) of electricity generating capacity.
Editor:Cherie
