Evaluating the impact of third-party price reporting and other drivers on residential photovoltaic price estimates

Policy-makers typically track the rapidly evolving U.S. residential photovoltaic (PV) market by relying on price data reported by PV installers/integrators to incentive programs. Recent years have witnessed a shift toward third-party-owned (TPO) business models, in which the absence of a cash purchase price obscures data interpretation. Appraisals—often based on estimates of the average fair market value across a diverse fleet of systems—are one way TPO prices are reported.