IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v121y2023ics0140988323001470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disentangle the price dispersion of residential solar photovoltaic systems: Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Kraschewski, Tobias
  • Brauner, Tim
  • Heumann, Maximilian
  • Breitner, Michael H.

Abstract

Although Germany has the largest capacity of installed residential photovoltaic (PV) systems in Europe, comprehensive evidence on transparent pricing information remains missing. This study disentangles why PV quote prices are subject to significant dispersion and analyzes which factors influence particularly low- and high-priced systems in Germany. We create a comprehensive cross-sectional dataset of 19 561 PV system quotes from 2011 to 2022 and use regression analyses to investigate the effects of system characteristics, installation scope, and location-related parameters on quoted prices. Our results reveal highly volatile annual price dispersion consistent over 11 years and large price differences despite similar system characteristics. Applying hedonic regression techniques, we reveal spatially fine-resolved price heterogeneity with up to 20% difference in the German PV market. System characteristics such as battery usage, installation scope, and system capacity have the most significant effect sizes and are instead control variables. More insightful, the installer density shows price-lowering effects, whereas more PV installations per region, higher solar radiation, and higher labor wages cause price-increasing effects. Quantile regression results reveal that installer density promotes the price reduction of high-priced systems more. Scaffolding, AC installation, and elevation are significant price-increasing factors but with small effect sizes. Finally, DC optimizers affect the levels of high-priced systems more than low-priced ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Kraschewski, Tobias & Brauner, Tim & Heumann, Maximilian & Breitner, Michael H., 2023. "Disentangle the price dispersion of residential solar photovoltaic systems: Evidence from Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323001470
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323001470
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106649?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nemet, Gregory F. & O’Shaughnessy, Eric & Wiser, Ryan & Darghouth, Naïm & Barbose, Galen & Gillingham, Ken & Rai, Varun, 2017. "Characteristics of low-priced solar PV systems in the U.S," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 501-513.
    2. O’Shaughnessy, Eric & Margolis, Robert, 2018. "The value of price transparency in residential solar photovoltaic markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 406-412.
    3. Cousse, Julia, 2021. "Still in love with solar energy? Installation size, affect, and the social acceptance of renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    4. Taruttis, Lisa & Weber, Christoph, 2022. "Estimating the impact of energy efficiency on housing prices in Germany: Does regional disparity matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    5. Nemet, Gregory F. & O'Shaughnessy, Eric & Wiser, Ryan & Darghouth, Naïm R. & Barbose, Galen & Gillingham, Ken & Rai, Varun, 2017. "What factors affect the prices of low-priced U.S. solar PV systems?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1333-1339.
    6. Kenneth Gillingham, Hao Deng, Ryan Wiser, Naim Darghouth, Gregory Nemet, Galen Barbose, Varun Rai, and Changgui Dong, 2016. "Deconstructing Solar Photovoltaic Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    7. Evangelista, Rui & Silva, João Andrade e & Ramalho, Esmeralda A., 2022. "How heterogeneous is the impact of energy efficiency on dwelling prices? Evidence from the application of the unconditional quantile hedonic model to the Portuguese residential market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Pillai, Unni, 2015. "Drivers of cost reduction in solar photovoltaics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 286-293.
    9. Maciejowska, Katarzyna, 2020. "Assessing the impact of renewable energy sources on the electricity price level and variability – A quantile regression approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    11. Dong, Changgui & Wiser, Ryan, 2013. "The impact of city-level permitting processes on residential photovoltaic installation prices and development times: An empirical analysis of solar systems in California cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 531-542.
    12. Karakaya, Emrah & Sriwannawit, Pranpreya, 2015. "Barriers to the adoption of photovoltaic systems: The state of the art," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 60-66.
    13. Seel, Joachim & Barbose, Galen L. & Wiser, Ryan H., 2014. "An analysis of residential PV system price differences between the United States and Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 216-226.
    14. Evangelista, Rui & Ramalho, Esmeralda A. & Andrade e Silva, João, 2020. "On the use of hedonic regression models to measure the effect of energy efficiency on residential property transaction prices: Evidence for Portugal and selected data issues," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Qiu, Yueming & Wang, Yi David & Wang, Jianfeng, 2017. "Soak up the sun: Impact of solar energy systems on residential home values in Arizona," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 328-336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. O'Shaughnessy, Eric & Nemet, Gregory F. & Pless, Jacquelyn & Margolis, Robert, 2019. "Addressing the soft cost challenge in U.S. small-scale solar PV system pricing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Strupeit, Lars & Neij, Lena, 2017. "Cost dynamics in the deployment of photovoltaics: Insights from the German market for building-sited systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 948-960.
    3. Nemet, Gregory F. & Lu, Jiaqi & Rai, Varun & Rao, Rohan, 2020. "Knowledge spillovers between PV installers can reduce the cost of installing solar PV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. O'Shaughnessy, Eric, 2019. "Non-monotonic effects of market concentration on prices for residential solar photovoltaics in the United States," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 182-191.
    5. Neij, Lena & Nemet, Gregory, 2022. "Accelerating the low-carbon transition will require policy to enhance local learning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    6. O’Shaughnessy, Eric & Margolis, Robert, 2018. "The value of price transparency in residential solar photovoltaic markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 406-412.
    7. Nemet, Gregory F. & O'Shaughnessy, Eric & Wiser, Ryan & Darghouth, Naïm R. & Barbose, Galen & Gillingham, Ken & Rai, Varun, 2017. "What factors affect the prices of low-priced U.S. solar PV systems?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1333-1339.
    8. Neij, Lena & Heiskanen, Eva & Strupeit, Lars, 2017. "The deployment of new energy technologies and the need for local learning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 274-283.
    9. Schauf, Magnus & Schwenen, Sebastian, 2023. "System price dynamics for battery storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Lau, Lin-Sea & Choong, Yuen-Onn & Wei, Chooi-Yi & Seow, Ai-Na & Choong, Chee-Keong & Senadjki, Abdelhak & Ching, Suet-Ling, 2020. "Investigating nonusers’ behavioural intention towards solar photovoltaic technology in Malaysia: The role of knowledge transmission and price value," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Wang, Derek D. & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2017. "Assessment of large commercial rooftop photovoltaic system installations: Evidence from California," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 45-55.
    12. Evangelista, Rui & Silva, João Andrade e & Ramalho, Esmeralda A., 2022. "How heterogeneous is the impact of energy efficiency on dwelling prices? Evidence from the application of the unconditional quantile hedonic model to the Portuguese residential market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Kenneth Gillingham, Hao Deng, Ryan Wiser, Naim Darghouth, Gregory Nemet, Galen Barbose, Varun Rai, and Changgui Dong, 2016. "Deconstructing Solar Photovoltaic Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    14. Strupeit, Lars, 2017. "An innovation system perspective on the drivers of soft cost reduction for photovoltaic deployment: The case of Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 273-286.
    15. Best, Rohan & Trück, Stefan, 2020. "Capital and policy impacts on Australian small-scale solar installations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    16. Pradhan, Ashis Kumar & Rout, Sandhyarani & Khan, Imran Ahmed, 2021. "Does market concentration affect wholesale electricity prices? An analysis of the Indian electricity sector in the COVID-19 pandemic context," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    17. Rui Evangelista & João Andrade E Silva & Esmeralda A. Ramalho, 2021. "How heterogeneous is the impact of energy efficiency on dwelling prices? Evidence from the application of the unconditional quantile hedonic model to the Portuguese residential market," Working Papers REM 2021/0186, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    18. Ajanaku, Bolarinwa A. & Collins, Alan R., 2024. "“Comparing merit order effects of wind penetration across wholesale electricity markets”," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    19. Huisman, Ronald & Stet, Cristian, 2022. "The dependence of quantile power prices on supply from renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    20. Shimada, Hideki & Honda, Tomonori, 2022. "What drives households’ choices of residential solar photovoltaic capacity?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Residential solar PV; Price dispersion; Hedonic model; Quantile regression; Quote data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323001470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.