{"id":1104669,"name":"Solar photovoltaic module price","unit":"constant 2024 US$ per watt","createdAt":"2025-08-28T07:49:10.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-27T16:57:20.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1975-2024","datasetId":7198,"shortUnit":"$/W","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"cost","catalogPath":"grapher/energy/2025-08-22/photovoltaic_cost_and_capacity/photovoltaic_cost_and_capacity#cost","descriptionShort":"This data is expressed in US dollars per watt, adjusted for inflation.","descriptionProcessing":"- Historical photovoltaic cost data between 1975 and 2003 has been taken from Nemet (2009), and between 2004 and 2009 from Farmer & Lafond (2016).\n- From 2010 onward, prices come from IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs report, based on pvXchange benchmarks for modules sold in Europe, using the 'Thin film a-Si/u-Si or Global Price Index (from Q4 2013)' series.\n- Prices from Nemet (2009) and Farmer & Lafond (2016) have been converted to 2024 US$ using the US GDP deflator, to account for the effects of inflation. The deflator data is available from the [World Bank World Development Indicators](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.DEFL.ZS?locations=US).","type":"float","grapherConfigIdETL":"0198efa6-eb1e-7bb3-8225-fdca72b7981d","dataChecksum":"16067211946761976923","metadataChecksum":"8460272609908887646","datasetName":"Solar photovoltaic cost and capacity","updatePeriodDays":365,"datasetVersion":"2025-08-22","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{"name":"Solar PV module cost","unit":"constant 2024 US$ per watt","shortUnit":"$"},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"major","presentation":{"titlePublic":"Solar photovoltaic module price","topicTagsLinks":["Energy"]},"descriptionKey":"- Solar photovoltaic module prices refer to the cost of the solar panel itself, and do not include installation or other system components.\n- Prices are compiled from three sources: Nemet (2009) for 1975-2003, Farmer & Lafond (2016) for 2004-2009, and IRENA for 2010 onward.\n- Due to limited data availability, we use the Global Price Index series reported by IRENA, based on pvXchange benchmark prices for modules sold in Europe.\n- Historical prices have been adjusted for inflation using the [World Bank's US GDP deflator](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.DEFL.ZS?locations=US).","dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":1975},{"id":1976},{"id":1977},{"id":1978},{"id":1979},{"id":1980},{"id":1981},{"id":1982},{"id":1983},{"id":1984},{"id":1985},{"id":1986},{"id":1987},{"id":1988},{"id":1989},{"id":1990},{"id":1991},{"id":1992},{"id":1993},{"id":1994},{"id":1995},{"id":1996},{"id":1997},{"id":1998},{"id":1999},{"id":2000},{"id":2001},{"id":2002},{"id":2003},{"id":2004},{"id":2005},{"id":2006},{"id":2007},{"id":2008},{"id":2009},{"id":2010},{"id":2011},{"id":2012},{"id":2013},{"id":2014},{"id":2015},{"id":2016},{"id":2017},{"id":2018},{"id":2019},{"id":2020},{"id":2021},{"id":2022},{"id":2023},{"id":2024}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":355,"name":"World","code":"OWID_WRL"}]}},"origins":[{"id":7063,"title":"Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024","producer":"IRENA","citationFull":"IRENA - Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024. International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi (2025).","attributionShort":"IRENA","urlMain":"https://www.irena.org/Publications/2025/Jun/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2024","urlDownload":"https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2025/Jul/IRENA-Datafile-RenPwrGenCosts-in-2024.xlsx","dateAccessed":"2025-08-22","datePublished":"2025-07-01","license":{"url":"https://www.irena.org/Publications/2025/Jun/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2024","name":"©IRENA 2025"}},{"id":320,"title":"Interim monitoring of cost dynamics for publicly supported energy technologies","producer":"Nemet","citationFull":"Interim monitoring of cost dynamics for publicly supported energy technologies, Energy Policy 37(3): 825-835, by Nemet, G. F. (2009), obtained via [the Performance Curve Database](http://pcdb.santafe.edu).","attributionShort":"Nemet","urlMain":"https://pcdb.santafe.edu/graph.php?curve=158","urlDownload":"https://pcdb.santafe.edu/process_download.php?curve=158&typ=csv","dateAccessed":"2023-12-12","datePublished":"2009-03-01","license":{"url":"https://pcdb.santafe.edu/graph.php?curve=158","name":"CC BY 3.0 DEED"}},{"id":284,"title":"How predictable is technological progress?","producer":"Farmer and Lafond","citationFull":"How predictable is technological progress? J. D. Farmer & F. Lafond, Research Policy Volume 45, Issue 3, April 2016, Pages 647-665.\n\nThe data are mostly taken from the [Santa-Fe Performance Curve DataBase](https://pcdb.santafe.edu/). The database has been constructed from personal communications and from [Colpier and Cornland (2002)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0095), [Goldemberg et al. (2004)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0130), [Lieberman (1984)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0180), [Lipman and Sperling (1999)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0190), [Zhao (1999)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0310), [McDonald and Schrattenholzer (2001)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0205), [Neij et al. (2003)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0235), [Moore (2006)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0215), [Nemet (2006)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0240), [Schilling and Esmundo (2009)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0265). The data on photovoltaic prices has been collected from public releases of Strategies Unlimited, Navigant and SPV Market Research. The data on nuclear energy is from [Koomey and Hultman (2007)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0165) and [Cooper (2009)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0100). The DNA sequencing data is from [Wetterstrand (2015)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699#bib0290) (cost per human-size genome), and for each year the last available month (September for 2001-2002 and October afterwards) was taken and corrected for inflation using the US GDP deflator.","attributionShort":"Farmer and Lafond","urlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699","dateAccessed":"2023-12-12","datePublished":"2016-04-01","license":{"url":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315001699","name":"CC BY 4.0"}}]}