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The high cost of rooftop solar in the US is mostly a regulatory choice. From tariffs driving up prices significantly, to completely scattered permitting process

The high cost of rooftop solar in the US is mostly a regulatory choice. From tariffs driving up prices significantly, to completely scattered permitting processes city-to-city, to wild swings in utility policies that make solar a good-to-bad decision overnight, it all drives costs up. So the only solar installers who survive are those who are able to swoop in when the utility policies change and can drive customer acquisition super quickly ($$$), and have massive permitting office experience that lets them deploy. That all costs a lot of money and drives out competition from the space. So we pay something like 3x-5x for residential solar in the US versus Australia. Because we choose to as a society. Also, I heartily disagree that utility scale solar is obviously cheaper. Transmission and distribution costs are the biggest cost on the grid, and utility scale solar needs to pay for that whereas residential solar drives down T&D costs. We definitely need a lot of utility scale solar, but if we want cheaper electricity we need to incentivize tons of residential solar so that we can keep our grid costs lower.

ericd 1y ago
Well, very few in the US realize that residential solar in the US is 3x the price it is in Australia, let alone that a lot of it caused by regulatory structures, so it’s hard to say it’s a conscious choice we’ve made… But yeah, would be great if we could do something about it. There are some baby steps - Maryland passed a law last year to force adoption of uniform permitting process via NREL’s SolarApp+, hopefully that’ll make a dent.
opo 1y ago
>...Also, I heartily disagree that utility scale solar is obviously cheaper. Transmission and distribution costs are the biggest cost on the grid, and utility scale solar needs to pay for that whereas residential solar drives down T&D costs. If we are really at the point where distribution costs for utility solar make it cost anywhere near the cost of consumer rooftop solar, we have a real problem. If that is true, we probably need a different approach to decarbonize the grid. I don't think you are right.
- epistasis 1y ago
  You'll need to show your numbers, I don't follow what sort of reasoning could arrive at needing a different approach for decarbonizing the grid. Average US consumer costs are $70/MWh for transmission [1], out of $130/MWh total averaged across all consumer types [2]. However, those are average prices, residential consumers pay far higher prices, especially for the T&D side. New utility scale solar is $38-$78/MWh unsubsidized [3, page 8], at $1.15-$1.6/W. [3, page 34]. Meanwhile, residential solar is $2.5/W to $3.5/W [4], meaning it's only twice as expensive as utility scale solar. All told, that means that residential solar cost is roughly equal to the cost of utility scale + T&D. (While searching the web, several results claimed that residential solar typically costs $0.06-$0.10/kWh, or $60-$100/MWh, but that seems too low, and I'm guessing is from old data when it was cheaper to residential builds...) All this ignores storage, etc. But residential solar shaves off the highest peak of demand from air conditioning on the hottest days, so every time I see a neighbor install solar I cheer because I know that it's less justification for the utility to build out more T&D for the rest of the power needs. [1] https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/us-electric-utilities-transmission-and-distribution-costs/ https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/us-electric-utilitie... [2] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_5_03 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph... [3] Main report PDF at https://www.lazard.com/news-announcements/lazard-releases-2025-levelized-cost-of-energyplus-report-pr/ https://www.lazard.com/news-announcements/lazard-releases-20... [4] many sources, this hasn't changed much in years, one random top web hit is here: https://www.ecoflow.com/us/blog/california-solar-panel-costs-2500-sq-ft https://www.ecoflow.com/us/blog/california-solar-panel-costs...
  - opo 1y ago
    >>…Also, I heartily disagree that utility scale solar is obviously cheaper. Transmission and distribution costs are the biggest cost on the grid, and utility scale solar needs to pay for that whereas residential solar drives down T&D costs. From the 2024 numbers the LCOE for utility solar was $29 - $92 and the consumer rooftop solar LCOE was estimated to be $122 to $284. Depending on the projects, utility solar was estimated to usually be somewhere around 3-10 time cheaper than rooftop solar. If the transmission and distribution costs could bring the low cost of utility solar anywhere near the very high cost of consumer rooftop solar, that would be very concerning as that $122 - $284 cost estimate also doesn’t cover any of the costs of firming intermittency. I have never heard anyone else implying the costs of distributing the electricity from new utility solar projects could increase the cost that much. The money that has gone to pay for net metering to subsidize those very high consumer rooftop costs should have gone to utility solar and grid storage projects - the goal is to decarbonize the grid and the money should be spent where it will do the most good.

ericd 1y ago

Well, very few in the US realize that residential solar in the US is 3x the price it is in Australia, let alone that a lot of it caused by regulatory structures, so it’s hard to say it’s a conscious choice we’ve made… But yeah, would be great if we could do something about it. There are some baby steps - Maryland passed a law last year to force adoption of uniform permitting process via NREL’s SolarApp+, hopefully that’ll make a dent.

opo 1y ago

>...Also, I heartily disagree that utility scale solar is obviously cheaper. Transmission and distribution costs are the biggest cost on the grid, and utility scale solar needs to pay for that whereas residential solar drives down T&D costs. If we are really at the point where distribution costs for utility solar make it cost anywhere near the cost of consumer rooftop solar, we have a real problem. If that is true, we probably need a different approach to decarbonize the grid. I don't think you are right.

epistasis 1y ago
You'll need to show your numbers, I don't follow what sort of reasoning could arrive at needing a different approach for decarbonizing the grid. Average US consumer costs are $70/MWh for transmission [1], out of $130/MWh total averaged across all consumer types [2]. However, those are average prices, residential consumers pay far higher prices, especially for the T&D side. New utility scale solar is $38-$78/MWh unsubsidized [3, page 8], at $1.15-$1.6/W. [3, page 34]. Meanwhile, residential solar is $2.5/W to $3.5/W [4], meaning it's only twice as expensive as utility scale solar. All told, that means that residential solar cost is roughly equal to the cost of utility scale + T&D. (While searching the web, several results claimed that residential solar typically costs $0.06-$0.10/kWh, or $60-$100/MWh, but that seems too low, and I'm guessing is from old data when it was cheaper to residential builds...) All this ignores storage, etc. But residential solar shaves off the highest peak of demand from air conditioning on the hottest days, so every time I see a neighbor install solar I cheer because I know that it's less justification for the utility to build out more T&D for the rest of the power needs. [1] https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/us-electric-utilities-transmission-and-distribution-costs/ https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/us-electric-utilitie... [2] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_5_03 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph... [3] Main report PDF at https://www.lazard.com/news-announcements/lazard-releases-2025-levelized-cost-of-energyplus-report-pr/ https://www.lazard.com/news-announcements/lazard-releases-20... [4] many sources, this hasn't changed much in years, one random top web hit is here: https://www.ecoflow.com/us/blog/california-solar-panel-costs-2500-sq-ft https://www.ecoflow.com/us/blog/california-solar-panel-costs...
- opo 1y ago
  >>…Also, I heartily disagree that utility scale solar is obviously cheaper. Transmission and distribution costs are the biggest cost on the grid, and utility scale solar needs to pay for that whereas residential solar drives down T&D costs. From the 2024 numbers the LCOE for utility solar was $29 - $92 and the consumer rooftop solar LCOE was estimated to be $122 to $284. Depending on the projects, utility solar was estimated to usually be somewhere around 3-10 time cheaper than rooftop solar. If the transmission and distribution costs could bring the low cost of utility solar anywhere near the very high cost of consumer rooftop solar, that would be very concerning as that $122 - $284 cost estimate also doesn’t cover any of the costs of firming intermittency. I have never heard anyone else implying the costs of distributing the electricity from new utility solar projects could increase the cost that much. The money that has gone to pay for net metering to subsidize those very high consumer rooftop costs should have gone to utility solar and grid storage projects - the goal is to decarbonize the grid and the money should be spent where it will do the most good.