{"id": 1354533, "name": "Solar photovoltaic module price", "unit": "constant 2025 US$ per watt", "createdAt": "2026-10-28T12:07:27.000Z", "updatedAt": "2026-10-28T12:07:27.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1975-2025", "datasetId": 8243, "shortUnit": "$/W", "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "cost", "catalogPath": "grapher/energy/2026-10-23/photovoltaic_cost_and_capacity/photovoltaic_cost_and_capacity#cost", "descriptionShort": "Average price of solar photovoltaic modules, in US dollars per watt, adjusted for inflation.", "descriptionProcessing": "- Historical photovoltaic cost data between 1975 and 2003 has been taken from Nemet (2009), and between 2004 and 2009 from Farmer & Lafond (2016).\n- From 2010 to 2019, prices come from the global module price index in IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 report (the 'Thin film a-Si/u-Si or Global Price Index (from Q4 2013)' series), based on pvXchange benchmarks for modules sold in Europe. IRENA dropped this index from its later reports.\n- From 2020 onward, prices come from the 'Mainstream' module series in IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2025 report, also based on pvXchange benchmarks for modules sold in Europe. Between 2020 and 2023, the two series differ by less than 20%, so we join them without rescaling either one.\n- Prices from Nemet (2009), Farmer & Lafond (2016), and IRENA's global price index have been converted to 2025 US$ using the US GDP deflator (linked series), 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.AD?locations=US).", "type": "float", "patchConfigIdETL": "01a18268-788a-70fd-b9a6-5e0781fbec68", "datasetName": "Solar photovoltaic cost and capacity", "updatePeriodDays": 365, "datasetVersion": "2026-10-23", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"name": "Solar PV module cost", "unit": "constant 2025 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 four sources: Nemet (2009) for 1975\u20132003, Farmer & Lafond (2016) for 2004\u20132009, IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 report for 2010\u20132019, and IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2025 report for 2020 onward.\n- Due to limited data availability, from 2010 onward we use benchmark prices for modules sold in Europe, which IRENA reports based on data from the trading platform pvXchange. Up to 2019, we use IRENA's module prices, which are based on thin-film modules until late 2013 and on a global price index after that. IRENA has stopped publishing this index, so from 2020 we use its price for mainstream modules, which are standard crystalline silicon modules.\n- Historical prices have been adjusted for inflation using the [World Bank's US GDP deflator (linked series)](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.DEFL.ZS.AD?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}, {"id": 2025}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 355, "name": "World", "code": "OWID_WRL"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 21611, "title": "Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024", "producer": "IRENA", "citationFull": "IRENA \u2013 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": "\u00a9IRENA 2025"}}, {"id": 21610, "title": "Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2025", "producer": "IRENA", "citationFull": "IRENA \u2013 Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2025. International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi (2026).", "attributionShort": "IRENA", "urlMain": "https://www.irena.org/Publications/2026/Jul/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2025", "urlDownload": "https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2026/Jul/IRENA_TEC_RPGC_in_2025_data_file_2026.xlsx", "dateAccessed": "2026-07-28", "datePublished": "2026-07-01", "license": {"url": "https://www.irena.org/Publications/2026/Jul/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2025", "name": "\u00a9IRENA 2026"}}, {"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"}}]}