NREL’s installed system cost benchmark analyses the total cost of installing PV for residential rooftop, commercial rooftop and utility-scale ground-mount systems, plus solar-plus-storage. It uses a bottom-up method, building the number from hardware, labor, permitting and overhead rather than surveying installed prices.
Note the vintage before you cite it: the most recent edition listed on NREL’s benchmark page is the Q1 2022 report, “U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks, With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis.”
How it gets used on a real project
The value here is the breakdown, not the headline dollar per watt. Seeing how much of a residential system’s cost is customer acquisition, or how much of a commercial install is permitting and inspection overhead, is what makes cost conversations concrete and shows where margin actually goes.
Because the published benchmark has not been refreshed since Q1 2022, treat the absolute figures as historical rather than current, particularly given equipment and labor cost movement since. For current utility-scale cost data, Berkeley Lab’s Utility-Scale Solar report is the better source. The residential and commercial segments, which Berkeley Lab does not cover, are where this benchmark still earns its place.