This “Utility-Scale Solar, 2024 Edition” report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory summarises:

Utility-scale PV continued to lead solar deployment in 2023, with Texas adding the most new capacity. 89% of new projects and 96% of new capacity feature single-axis tracking. The capacity-weighted installed cost of solar projects that came online in 2023 fell to $1.43/WAC ($1.08/WDC), down 8% from 2022 and 75% from 2010. Median prices (perhaps better reflecting typical project costs) fell from $1.61/WAC to 1.33/WAC . Average capacity factors range from 17% in the least-sunny regions to 31% in the sunniest. Single-axis tracking adds more than five percentage points to capacity factors in the regions with the strongest solar resource.

The generation-weighted LCOE from utility-scale PV has declined by 80% since 2010 to $46/MWh (without tax credits) or $31/MWh (with tax credits) in 2023. Levelized PPA prices have kept pace, but prices on newly executed agreements have trended upward the last few years. Since 2021 prices have typically ranged from $20-45/MWh in CAISO and the non-ISO West to $35-$85/MWh elsewhere, with the highest prices in PJM and MISO. 

The market value of solar fell in 2023 to $44/MWh on average, as energy prices returned to more normal levels. The generation costs of newer projects is less than their wholesale market replacement costs. Rising prices for new PPAs are now higher in some regions than solar’s energy and capacity market value in 2023. When accounting for climate and health benefits, solar generation delivered nearly $14 billion net-value in 2023.

Interest in hybridization (pairing PV with batteries) continued to set new records in 2023 (37 new greenfield plants, 4.4 GWAC-PV and 15 project retrofits, 0.9 GWAC-PV). Recent (2022-2024) PV+battery hybrid PPAs in the continental US had a capacity-weighted average of $55/MWh-PV. Across all 7 ISOs and 44 additional utilities, there were 1085 GW of solar in interconnection queues at the end of 2023. More than half of this proposed solar capacity is paired with battery storage, with the highest concentration of these PV+battery hybrid plants in CAISO (98%) and the non-ISO West (81%).

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