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The Solar Advisor Model (SAM) software includes a set of sample files that contain cost data prepared to illustrate its use. The cost data is meant to be realistic, but not to represent actual costs in the marketplace. Actual costs will vary depending on the market, technology and geographic location of a project. Because of price volatility in solar markets, the cost data in the sample files is likely to be out of date.
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Solar Energy Technologies Multi-Year Program Plan, 2007-2011 was used as the source for the cost data in the SAM photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) sample files. PV costs and system descriptions are shown on pages 42-46 (PDF 3.2 MB) Download Acrobat Reader, and CSP costs and system descriptions are shown on pages 63-65 (PDF 3.4 MB) Download Acrobat Reader.
The cost data were developed in the spring of 2005 based on an analysis of a limited number of systems. No formal documentation of the analysis underlying the data is available. When DOE releases the new multi-year program plan (no earlier than January 2008), we will update the PV cost data in the sample files.
Photovoltaic Cost Data
PV cost input data in SAM are divided into two broad categories: capital and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Capital costs are further categorized into direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are costs associated with the purchase of equipment: PV modules, inverter(s), balance of system (BOS), and installation costs. BOS costs are equipment costs that cannot be assigned to either the PV module or the inverter, and may include such costs as mounting racks, junction boxes, and wiring. Installation costs are the labor costs associated with installing the equipment.
Indirect costs may include all other costs that are built into the price of a system, such as profit, overhead (including marketing), design, permitting, shipping, etc.
O&M costs are costs associated with a system after it is installed, and are categorized into fixed and variable O&M costs. Fixed O&M costs are costs that vary with the size of the system, and may include the cost of inverter replacements and periodic maintenance checks. Variable O&M costs vary with the output of the system, and may be considered to be zero or very small for most PV systems.
SAM uses the total installed cost, which is the sum of direct and indirect costs, to calculate the levelized cost of energy. Because how costs are assigned to each category does not affect the total installed cost, you can either choose to distribute profit, overhead, shipping, and other costs among the component categories (module, inverter, BOS, Installation) or include them as a single value in the indirect category (miscellaneous).
Note that for the costs in the PV sample files (based on 2005 costs from the DOE Multi-Year Program Plan), the total installed cost was intended to represent equipment purchase and labor costs plus a margin sufficient to sustain a profitable business with a reasonable return on investment, not the system's sales price in the current market.
Manufacturing Cost Model
Navigant Consulting Inc. (NCI) created the SAI Public Cost Model (Excel 4.0 MB) for the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative (SAI) to demonstrate a common accounting framework for use by Technology Pathway Partners (TPPs). This model helps the TPP companies, as well as other PV manufacturers, to determine their total manufacturing cost. SAM comes with default cost values and can be modified with the outputs from this spreadsheet. However, the SAI Public Cost Model is a stand-alone application and not required when using SAM. All questions regarding this manufacturing cost model should be directed to the SAI support team.
Additional Sources of PV Cost Data
The following non-DOE Web sites provide PV cost data sources that may be useful in your analysis.
The California Energy Commission's Emerging Renewables Program Web site provides information about systems installed in California, and includes a link to a spreadsheet of total installed system costs for systems installed throughout the state (Excel 2.4 MB).
SolarBuzz provides current and historical price data for the U.S. and around the world based on market studies:
Concentrating Solar Power Cost Data
The cost of parabolic troughs, the CSP technology currently modeled in SAM, is sensitive to variations in commodity prices and construction costs, and has been affected by recent intense interest in the industry. In addition, because of the small number of installed plants, there are fewer cost data points on which to base the costs provided in the CSP sample files. There are several recent publications with more up-to-date cost data for parabolic troughs and other CSP technologies.
These following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Acrobat Reader:
- Black & Veatch (2007), Arizona Renewable Energy Assessment Final Report (PDF 2.8 MB)
- Black & Veatch (2006), Economic, Energy, and Environmental Benefits of Concentrating Solar Power in California, pg. 5-5 (PDF 1.5 MB)
- The Western Governors' Association's Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Committee (2006), Solar Task Force Report, pg. 16, 25 (PDF 3.1 MB)
- Sargent & Lundy Engineering (2003), Assessment of Parabolic Trough and Power Tower Solar Technology Cost and Performance Forecasts, pg. 4-11 (PDF 2.4 MB)
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