{"id": 1104669, "name": "Solar photovoltaic module price", "unit": "constant 2024 US$ per watt", "createdAt": "2025-08-28T07:49:10.000Z", "updatedAt": "2026-01-29T18:23:39.000Z", "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": "-2197769094007325399", "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.", "Prices are compiled from three sources: Nemet (2009) for 1975-2003, Farmer & Lafond (2016) for 2004-2009, and IRENA for 2010 onward.", "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.", "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": "\u00a9IRENA 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"}}]}