Why Are Residential PV Prices in Germany So Much Lower Than in the US

A presentation from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, exploring Why Rooftop PV is so much cheaper in Germany than the US.  Their feed-in tariff started out quite generous, and has declined predictably over the last several years, which has resulted in the rooftop PV market growing enormously, while installers have been forced to dramatically reduce costs.  To the point where today, it’s about half the cost per-watt-installed to get PV in Germany that it is in the US.  The physical hardware is the same price, but the process is much easier, and the businesses involved in it much leaner.  Good old fashioned German engineering at work, but in the policy realm.

Designing Feed-in Tariffs

NREL took a nice long look at different ways to design feed-in tariffs (PDF) in July of 2010, based on the past decade’s worth of experience, both in the EU and several US states.  It’s 144 pages long and aimed at policymakers… so, not exactly light reading.  But if you really want to know how these things work (or fail), it’s great.