The roles of learning mechanisms in services: Evidence from US residential solar installations
- University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (United States)
- University of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Non-hardware costs are majority of the cost of producing solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity. Here we use matched data on patents and over 125,000 residential PV installations to estimate the effects of three learning mechanisms in reducing PV costs: learning by doing, searching, and interacting. While previous work in this area has focused predominantly on learning by doing, we find that learning by searching and interacting are also significant mechanisms to facilitate non-hardware cost reductions. Including these two mechanisms reduces the effect of learning by doing in explaining non-hardware cost reductions by 43%. Our results suggest that prior work may overemphasize the role of learning by doing and the policies that help generate learning by doing. Analysis of the supplier-network between installers and their suppliers shows that concentrated supplier networks are associated with lower non-hardware costs, although there are key differences between installer-panel and installer-inverter manufacturer networks. An important implication is that policies for reducing non-hardware costs need to take a more complete view of how different learning mechanisms engender cost reductions. They should particularly consider the important role of learning in supplier networks in cost reductions—an effect that until now has largely been missing in analyses of solar non-hardware costs.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0007658
- OSTI ID:
- 1977097
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1871259
- Journal Information:
- Energy Policy, Vol. 167, Issue C; ISSN 0301-4215
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The Effects of Market Concentration on Residential Solar PV Prices: Competition, Installer Scale, and Soft Costs
The Effects of Market Concentration on Residential Solar PV Prices: Competition, Installer Scale, and Soft Costs