Evaluating the Changing Causes of Photovoltaics Cost Reduction

Evaluating the Changing Causes of Photovoltaics Cost Reduction

Why is PV Solar Energy getting cheaper and cheaper?

We find that increased module efficiency was the leading low-level cause of cost reduction in 1980-2001, contributing almost 30% of the cost decline. The most important high-level mechanism was R&D in these earlier stages of the technology. After 2001, scale economies became a more significant cause of cost reduction, approaching R&D in importance. Policies that stimulate market growth have played a key role in enabling the cost reduction in PV, through privately-funded R&D and economies of scale, and to a lesser extent learning-by-doing