New photovoltaic research shows that overall system costs for installations using mono PERC modules are set to fall by as much as 20% by 2025.

Across all market segments, PV system costs are falling faster than anticipated, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie. The unexpected decline in costs has been attributed to the rapidly declining price of modules, with the costs of a residential system using mono PERC modules now expected to fall 17% from 2020 to 2025. Mono PERC commercial and utility system costs, meanwhile, are expected to respectively drop 16% and 20%  over the same period.

Another development is brewing in the utility-scale segment, where bifacial mono PERC modules on tracking systems are becoming more and more cost-competitive with monofacial mono PERC modules. While bifacial tracking systems drive up costs with their increased inter-row spacing, requiring more land and larger project footprints, the same projects also offer reduced balance-of-system components and lower labor costs due to less system components.

Most important for bifacial utility tracking projects has been their exception from the Section 201 tariffs – so far. Because of this exemption, bifacial system costs are expected to sit at around 1% less than monofacial mono PERC systems over that same 2020 to 2025 timeframe. Without it, these projects have a much higher cost than their monofacial mono PERC counterparts.

For residential projects, falling module prices can only bring down costs so much. For years, the bane of residential solar system pricing has been the soft costs of customer acquisition, permitting and inspection. For some residential solar companies, customer acquisition alone can represent up to 30% of the per watt cost the company incurs for each new system installed.