The average capital costs of the construction of solar power plants have fallen by more than 80% over the past decade, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The global average cost of bringing 1 kilowatt (kW) of photovoltaic panels into operation is down from US$5,124 in 2010 to US$876 in 2022 (all values are given in 2022 prices).
The levelised cost of electricity generated by solar panels had also dropped considerably, going down from US$0.445 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2010 to US$0.049 per kWh in 2022. The lowering cost of technologies has led to an expansion in their geographic reach, including in countries with a high annual average number of sunny days, thanks to which the average utilisation rate of solar panels rose from 14% in 2010 to 17% in 2022.
At the same time, global capital costs of putting photovoltaic panels in operation increased from US$106.1 billion in 2013 to US$298.2 billion in 2022, with their share in the global structure of costs for the development of renewable energy sources rising from 44% to 60%.
The growth in investment is linked to, among other things, the ease of using solar panels in everyday life and in the commercial sector. This refers to projects with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), which have already become a key industry driver in a number of countries.
According to Ember, the housing sector, industry and the service sector accounted for 53% of the capacity of solar panels launched in China in 2021, and for 58% in 2022. Meanwhile, microgeneration accounted for 26% of the new solar power capacities launched in the United States in 2023.
There is also potential for microgeneration development in Turkey, where the total area of flat and pitched roofs is sufficient to accommodate 120 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic panels, while the installed capacity of all power plants operating in the country, including coal-, gas-, fuel oil-fired ones and generators powered by renewable energy sources, by the end of 2022 totaled 105.1 GW, of which 9.4 GW was represented by solar power.
The use of roofs for solar power development could be facilitated by the implementation of roof tiles with embedded monocrystalline solar cells. Roof tiles of this kind are produced by Autarq.
Each tile has a power output of 10 watts (W), adding up to 120 W per square metre of roofing. Autarq estimates that 40 square metres of PV tiles will be sufficient to generate 3,800 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is equivalent to annual power consumption of a four-member household.
