This week, EnergySage released our ninth Solar Marketplace Intel Report™. The publicly available report provides data on the state of the solar market nationwide and at the state level. In this report, we introduced a number of new analyses, from a direct comparison of EnergySage quote data to installed cost data nationally, to a breakdown of the quality of equipment quoted and installed both on and off the EnergySage Marketplace. A couple of key takeaways are outlined below, and we look forward to your analysis and feedback on the report.
The cost of solar fell 23% over five years
When we first began publishing our Solar Marketplace Intel Report™ at the end of 2014, the quoted cost of solar on EnergySage was nearly $4 per Watt. Though already a significant decline from the cost of solar from earlier in the 21st century, the costs of solar have only continued to decline since. In fact, in the first half of 2019, the average cost of solar on EnergySage dropped below $3 per Watt for the first time ever, a 23% decline over the last five years.
Competition and transparency mean you pay less for solar with EnergySage
By promoting competition and transparency, the EnergySage Marketplace helps reduce the cost of solar paid by solar shoppers. In fact, according to data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s foundational Tracking the Sun report, in 2018, the installed cost of solar nationwide was 26% higher off of EnergySage than it was for shoppers who used the Solar Marketplace. What’s most interesting is that these solar cost decreases for EnergySage shoppers aren’t achieved by defaulting to low quality installations or equipment; rather, over 70% of EnergySage shoppers select and install the highest quality solar equipment they are quoted, meaning they installed the best equipment at the lowest price.
EnergySage shoppers receive highly customized solar quotes
There are a wide variety of factors that ultimately influence both the cost of your solar installation and its system design. However, perhaps the most important piece of information is how much electricity you currently use. In leading solar states, solar companies designed systems to meet 95 percent or more of shoppers’ electricity needs. In other words, EnergySage’s installer partners are customizing to be specific to each individual solar shopper’s needs. You can see this at a high level in the breakdown of quoted system size by state and region, with areas of the country that use less electricity per month quoted smaller systems–such as the Northeast and California–and areas of the country with higher electricity usage receiving quotes for larger systems–such as the Southeast and Texas.
See how your solar costs compare on EnergySage
All of our data reports are free and publicly available for download on the data page of our website, at www.energysage.com/data. In the full report, you’ll see the state-by-state breakdown for the cost of solar, the average payback period for solar systems, the most popular solar equipment brands, and more. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about our data or to share your own analyses of this and other reports.
If you’re interested in seeing how the cost of solar in your neighborhood compares to national averages, register for the EnergySage Marketplace to receive up to seven free quotes from local, pre-screened solar installation companies.
