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Blog » Solar Installation Effectiveness

Solar Installation Effectiveness

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Josh Lutton

Today Woodlawn published the results of a multi-client project examining solar installation cost.  We found U.S. residential PV dealers spent an average of $3.69 per Watt to perform installations.  This includes all of the dealers’ installation-related costs.  (Note: this is different from the price of residential solar to the consumer.)

In addition, we found:

  • Dealer gross margins averaged only 20% (using a standard set of costs)
  • By matching low cost dealers in each expense category, dealers could install for $2.13 to $2.59 per Watt
  • Use of microinverters appears to decrease design costs by about $0.06 per Watt

The full report includes items such as:

  • Dealer comparisons on key installation cost metrics (including average and range)
  • Variations in cost as they relate to geography, scale, and microinverter use
  • Installation schedules, including times to perform each step in the installation process
  • 19 strategies for reducing installation costs
  • What module, inverter, and finance vendors ought to do to help dealers reduce installation costs and distinguish themselves from their competition

You can view an extract here.

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