Latest EnergySage report indicates U.S solar prices dropped in 7 of the 10 largest residential markets

Massachusetts — EnergySage released its tenth semiannual Solar Marketplace Intel Report™, which is based on millions of transaction-level data points generated within the EnergySage Solar Marketplace throughout 2019.

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 and why it’s well-positioned to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Solar has a long history as a resilient, mission-driven industry that has weathered many storms before,” said EnergySage CEO and founder Vikram Aggarwal. “As we continue to closely monitor the ongoing situation created by the coronavirus, I see no reason to expect that to change now. This industry is dynamic and always adapting. We’ve seen examples of this even in the past few weeks, as installers have accelerated their use of digital tools to engage consumers. Installers came into this crisis with a lot of strength and some real tailwinds; that’s highly relevant context as we collectively tackle new challenges.”

Key insights from the latest Solar Marketplace Intel Report include:

Solar prices drop in 7 of the 10 largest residential markets:
Over an 18-month period spanning from July 2018 through the end of 2019, solar prices began to decrease more predictably in the largest residential solar markets in the country. Between the first and second half of 2019, Arizona, Connecticut, and Nevada saw the biggest decrease in price.

Less than 2% of quotes on EnergySage are above $4 per Watt:
In 2009, the average price of solar remained above $8 per Watt. Ten years later, only one out of every 50 solar quotes on EnergySage was at a price half that high. The average cost of solar in 2019 was $2.96 per Watt, which is more than a 60% decline from a decade ago.

Power shutoffs in California led to a spike in solar and storage interest:
In October, EnergySage experienced a surge in website traffic and registrations from California following sustained power outages during wildfire season, known as public safety power shutoffs (PSPS). This is a pattern seen across the country in response to most extreme weather events as evidenced by the 2019 EnergySage-NABCEP Solar Installer Survey, which found that the primary driver for solar + storage installations is resilience in the face of storms or power outages.