Earlier this week, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) released Utility-Scale Solar 2016, its fifth annual report of the utility-scale (i.e., ground mounted and greater than 5 MWAC) solar project fleet in the United States. The report summarizes installation and technology-related trends, and provides data on installed project prices, operation and maintenance costs, project performance, and power purchase agreement (PPA) prices. Some of the report’s key findings include:
- More than half of the states now house at least one utility-scale solar installation;
- Utility-scale solar and distributed solar installations, combined, added more capacity to the grid in 2016 than any other resource, including natural gas and wind;
- In 2016, 146 photovoltaic projects totaling 7,385 MWAC achieved commercial operation; and
- Levelized PPA prices have continued to decline.
A presentation, data files, and data visualizations associated with the report can be found here.
LBNL plans to hold a webinar about the report on October 11th at 10 am PST. Registration for the webinar is available here.
