Renewable Energy Policy and Market Analyst National Renewable Energy Laboratory Denver, Colorado, United States
With approximately 1 million new homes constructed every year in the United States, this represents a significant opportunity for solar and storage installations. It is not clear how solar and storage are incorporated into the new construction process and at what cost. Further, it is unclear what barriers or opportunities exist to scale this model nationwide. To fill this gap in the literature, this research conducts a case study of Mandalay Homes’ new solar and storage community in Arizona to gather lessons learned. From this foundation, we further generate a set of pathways to reduce installation costs and expand solar and storage market penetration in this sector. We find three key cost reduction opportunities relating to solar and battery storage hardware, customer acquisition, and overhead. If future contractors can maximize the cost reduction opportunities outlined here, residential new construction costs could decline by 12 – 25% by 2030, depending on the modeled scenario.
