Today, EnergySage released its twelfth semiannual Solar Marketplace Intel Report, which is based on millions of transaction-level data points generated within the EnergySage Solar Marketplace throughout 2020. This report tracks the evolving pricing, equipment, and consumer preference trends shaping today’s U.S. residential solar industry, and serves as a leading indicator of where the market is headed in 2021.
“In 2020, people spent more time in their homes, but they also spent more on their homes,” said EnergySage CEO and founder Vikram Aggarwal. “At the same time, the consumer mindset has shifted, with interest in resiliency increasing significantly, whether due to the uncertainty of COVID-19, the wildfires and power shut offs in the West, major storm events in the East, or, most recently, the winter storm in Texas. We’re excited — and proud — that the solar and storage industries are helping consumers to become more resilient and keep the lights on under any circumstances.”
Key insights from the latest Solar Marketplace Intel Report include:
H2 2020 saw the largest drop in solar prices since 2017:
Quoted solar prices dropped by 3.5% on EnergySage between H1 2020 and H2 2020, the largest decrease since the first half of 2017. In fact, the percent of quotes below $2.50 per watt nearly doubled between the first and second half of the year on EnergySage.
Installers are quick to quote the newest equipment:
As evidenced by a jump in higher wattage solar panels quoted on EnergySage, solar companies are quick to learn about — and begin to sell — the newest technology available on the market: while two-thirds of quotes included sub-330-watt panels in H2 2019, 330 W–and larger–panels accounted for 69% of all quotes in H2 2020.
LG Energy Solutions overtook Tesla as the most quoted storage brand in Q4 2020:
In Q4 2020, nearly 40% of quotes on EnergySage included LG Energy Solutions, making it the most quoted storage brand on EnergySage. Tesla remained the least expensive storage option quoted. Batteries that utilize lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry are quoted at much higher prices than batteries with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry on EnergySage.
