Value Accrual to Customers, Installers, and Financiers in Third-Party Owned Solar PV Markets

Technical Report · Tue Feb 26 04:00:00 EST 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1505551· OSTI ID:1505551

Bielen, David A. ^[1]; OShaughnessy, Eric J. ^[1]; Sigrin, Benjamin O. ^[1]; Margolis, Robert M. ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Beyond the Federal Investment Tax Credit, the two primary financial incentives provided by residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are electricity bill savings and state and local government incentives. Using transaction-level data on third-party owned systems from 2012-2015, we estimate how value associated with these incentives are passed along the installer-financier-consumer supply chain in the third-party owned market. Our analysis finds evidence of financial incentive pass-through to system prices and customer payments with respect to both types of incentives. Moreover, we document differences in the levels of pass-through for different contract types: total pass-through to customer payments for both types of incentives is greater for PPAs than for UFOs. We find some evidence that pass-through rates to customer payments for PPAs change with market concentration. Finally, we illustrate that the magnitude of estimated pass-through changes for PPAs if we account for simultaneity between system prices and customer payments.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1505551
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP--6A20-70552
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
pass-through
residential solar
solar DAT
subsidies
third-party ownership