Cost trends and government incentives in the California photovoltaics market, 2007-2008

The focus of this thesis is to analyze cost trends and government incentives in the California PV market during 2007-2008. The data show that pre-rebate system costs increased in California during this time period and that this was driven by a surge in worldwide module cost. Systems employing thin film technology did not exhibit a downward impact on cost, which contradicts historical and technological expectations. Furthermore, the introduction of the California Solar Initiative's declining rebate structure had a limited effect on reducing system costs. Additional research is necessary to understand installer pricing behaviors, which seemed to negatively affect commercial buyers, and how to best capitalize on the strong effect of economies of scale that was present in the data. This may lead to improved mechanisms of cost reduction that can aid policymakers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Wang Yan, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard K. Lester.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54482

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/54482