EnergySage has officially released its 19th EnergySage Intel Solar & Storage Marketplace Report.
To offer some context, this semiannual report is basically designed to analyze millions of transaction-level data points from homeowners shopping on EnergySage.com from January through June 2024 for solar panels, inverters, batteries, and more, from solar companies in 48 states and Washington, D.C.
Anyway, talk about the trends observed in the report’s latest edition, they showed how the first six months of 2024 have been largely defined by near-record-low solar prices, persistently high interest rates, surging homeowner demand for storage, and shifting shopper motivations. This comes after what was a challenging but record-breaking year in 2023 for residential solar installations in the US. From a holistic standpoint, these factors, along with recent interest rate cuts, suggest the industry is at a turning point, and there remains strong potential for even lower solar and storage pricing, higher-quality equipment, and better financing options in the second half of the year.
More on the report’s data would reveal that solar prices fell for the second six-month period in a row, reaching $2.69 per watt and nearing the all-time lowest prices EnergySage has seen since beginning to track data in 2014. Beyond that, quoted storage prices also dropped, setting a record low of $1,133 per kilowatt-hour stored.
“We’re at a pivotal moment for solar pricing, where ongoing cost reductions are enabling more homeowners to make the switch to clean energy,” said Spencer Fields, EnergySage’s Director of Insights. “The combination of near-record low prices and more consumer-friendly financing options is creating new opportunities for wider adoption.”
Now, given the historic drop in prices, the percentage of homeowners nationwide purchasing a battery with their solar panels on EnergySage.com climbed to 34% in the first half of 2024. Here, California was a key driver, with an attachment rate of 70% following the implementation of the Net Billing Tariff in April 2023. Outside of California, the attachment rate rose by almost 22%.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the fact that, from H2 2023 to H1 2024, the median interest rate in quotes increased from 5.5% to 7.49%, while on the other hand; average loan fee would drop from 47% to 40%, respectively. The most-quoted loan product in H1 2024 was a 7.99%, 20-year loan with no fees, driving the spike in the median interest rate and drop in average loan fee.
“EnergySage was created to drive maximum transparency and help consumers find high-quality suppliers on our platform,” said Charlie Hadlow, President and COO of EnergySage. “This report is just one piece of that puzzle and serves to help industry stakeholders separate the signal from the noise and fact from fiction. With high-profile solar bankruptcies like SunPower and Titan Solar Power, along with more attention on a subset of players using aggressive sales tactics, EnergySage’s approach has never been more crucial to the sustainable growth of these industries.”
Founded in 2009, EnergySage’s rise up the ranks stems from providing the simplest and most trusted way to compare, and therefore, save on high-quality clean energy and energy-saving solutions, including rooftop solar, energy storage, heat pumps, EV chargers, and community solar. You see, the company is well-equipped to enable shoppers to request multiple high-quality quotes in minutes, leveraging in-depth resources and unbiased support to make the entire process straightforward, low-stress, and more affordable for consumers, EnergySage’s excellence in what it does can also be understood once you consider it is presently trusted by the likes of National Grid, MassCEC, Sierra Club, Intuit, SEIA, and NCSU’s DSIRE for guiding their own clients in this ongoing clean energy transition.
