Page - 104 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

Needs) program, and is now amajor part of DOE’s renewable energy program. The cost of solar PV cells was initially very high (several hundred US dollars per watt), with its market limited to space applicationswhere cost was not amajor issue. Eventually these costs started to come down as the technology improved, and more and more solar cells were manufactured. In recent years, with large-scale deployment of PV, and production in quite a few countries, the cost has come down dramatically, as shown inFigure 8.4: It is important to remember that the full cost of a PV installation includes not only the cost of the solar cells but also the ‘balance of system’ costs associatedwith permitting,wiring, Figure8.4 Priceperwatt (crystallinesiliconsolar cells). Water,Energy, andEnvironment–APrimer104