Solar (photovoltaic) panel prices

An interactive visualization from Our World in Data.

Our World in Data (ourworldindata.org)

Lithium-ion battery cell prices by chemistry

An interactive visualization from Our World in Data.

Our World in Data (ourworldindata.org)

The good news is that prices are falling fast. Batteries are 30% cheaper and panels 20% cheaper than four years ago. As the old credit was 30% of installation cost capped at $2000, that's practically a push relative to the installation costs when the credit was created. In many cases, I'm sure its cheaper today even without the credit.

Sadly even with the fall of cell prices and panels, the overall installations will likely still be much more expensive.

For solar, panel prices are actually a much smaller part of the overall cost of having an array installed. The other parts are the labor to install along with the design and permitting work. Labor costs continue to rise as well as inflation making the costs of both product and labor incrementally more expensive.

For heat pumps there's also a double whammy of a new replacement refridgerant over the R-410a. This means buying a new unit that all the old R-410a will be difficult as the EPA rules say that complete systems can no longer be manufatured as of Jan 1 2026. Environmentally its a good move, but the cost of the new systems will be higher than the older ones.

I, personally, was able to take advantage of both the solar tax credit as well as the heat pump credit. This allowed us permanently shut off the natural gas at our house significantly lowering our household carbon impact. I wish more Americans could do the same, but the US government has stopped these credits.