%0 Report
%A Mark Bolinger
%A Joachim Seel
%A Julie Mulvaney Kemp
%A Cody Warner
%A Anjali Katta
%A Dana Robson
%D 2023
%G eng
%T Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition: Empirical Trends in Deployment, Technology, Cost, Performance, PPA Pricing, and Value in the United States
%8 10/2023
%X <p>Berkeley Lab’s “Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition” presents analysis of empirical plant-level data from the U.S. fleet of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), PV+battery, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants with capacities exceeding 5 MW<sub>AC</sub> (PV plants of 5 MW<sub>AC</sub> or less, including residential rooftop systems, are covered separately in Berkeley Lab’s companion annual report, <a title="Tracking the Sun webpage link" href="https://emp.lbl.gov/tracking-the-sun/" target="_blank"><em>Tracking the Sun</em></a>).</p><p>Highlights of this year’s update include:</p><ul><li>10.4 GW<sub>AC</sub> of new utility-scale PV capacity came online in 2022, bringing cumulative installed capacity to more than 61.7 GW<sub>AC</sub> across 46 states.</li><li>94% of all new utility-scale PV capacity added in 2022 uses single-axis tracking.</li><li>Median installed project costs declined to $1.32/W<sub>AC</sub> (or $1.07/W<sub>DC</sub>) in 2022.</li><li>Plant-level capacity factors vary widely, from 9% to 35% (on an AC basis), with a sample median of 24%. The report explores drivers of this variation.</li><li>Utility-scale PV’s LCOE fell to $39/MWh in 2022 ($29/MWh if factoring in the federal investment tax credit, or ITC).</li><li>PPA prices have largely followed the decline in solar’s LCOE over time, but have recently stagnated and even moved slightly higher. Prices from a sample of recent contracts average around $20-30/MWh (levelized) in the West and $30-40/MWh elsewhere in the continental US.</li><li>In 2022, solar’s average market value (defined in the report to include only energy and capacity value) rose by 40% to $71/MWh and exceeded average wholesale prices in 4 of the 7 ISOs/RTOs and 11 of 18 other balancing authorities analyzed.</li><li>Adding battery storage is one way to increase the value of solar. Our public data file tracks metadata and PPA prices from ~100 PV+battery hybrid projects that are already online or that have secured offtake arrangements.</li><li>At the end of 2022, there were at least 947 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation, 456 GW of which include batteries.</li></ul><p>For more information, and to explore related interactive data visualizations, go to <a title="Project page link" href="https://emp.lbl.gov/utility-scale-solar" target="_blank">utilityscalesolar.lbl.gov</a>.</p>