All, just noticed that this email hadn't gone through to the wrench
list. Good follow-up to our March discussion (subject line: Value of PV
system to a home).
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Berkeley Lab Study Finds that Solar Photovoltaic Systems Boost
the Sales Price of California Homes
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:36:58 -0700
From: Ryan Wiser <rhwi...@lbl.gov>
To: n...@dante.lbl.gov
Dear Colleague:
We are pleased to announce the completion of a new Berkeley Lab report:
"An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems
on Home Sales Prices in California."
An increasing number of homes with photovoltaic (PV) energy systems have
sold in the U.S., yet relatively little research exists that estimates
the impacts of those PV systems on home sales prices.A clearer
understanding of these effects might influence the decisions of
homeowners considering installing PV on their home or selling their home
with PV already installed, of home buyers considering purchasing a home
with PV already installed, and of new home builders considering
installing PV on their production homes.
This research analyzes nearly 2000 California homes that have sold with
PV installed.Across a large number of model specifications and
robustness tests, the analysis finds strong evidence that California
homes with PV systems have sold for a premium over comparable homes
without PV systems.
Specifically, some of the key findings from the analysis include:
*
The average home sales price increases from PV across the full
sample of homes in the dataset ranges from approximately $3.9 to
$6.4 per installed watt (DC) of PV.
*
Most models coalesce near an average effect of $5.5/watt, which
corresponds to a home sales price premium of approximately $17,000
for a relatively new 3,100 watt PV system (the average size of PV
systems in the study).
*
These average sales price premiums appear to be comparable to the
investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems in
California, and homeowners with PV also benefit from electricity
cost savings after PV system installation and prior to home sale.
*
When expressed as a ratio of the sales price premium to estimated
annual electricity cost savings associated with PV, an average
ratio of 14:1 to 22:1 can be calculated; these results are
consistent with those of the more-extensive existing literature on
the impact of energy efficiency on home sales prices.
*
The analysis finds that sales price premiums decline as PV systems
age.
*
When the data are split between new and existing homes, a large
disparity in premiums is discovered: the research finds that new
homes with PV in California have demonstrated average premiums of
$2.3-2.6/watt, while the average premium for existing homes with
PV has been more than $6/watt.
*
The research suggests several possible reasons for the lower
premium for new homes, including that new home builders may also
gain value from PV as a market differentiator, and may therefore
have been willing to accept a lower premium in return for faster
sales velocity.
The full report can be downloaded from:
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf
A 2-page summary of the report's key findings can be found at:
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf
We appreciate the funding and support of the U.S. Department of Energy's
Solar Energy Technologies Program, the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, and the Clean Energy States Alliance, and we apologize in
advance for any cross-postings.
All the best,
Ryan Wiser, Ben Hoen, and Peter Cappers
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
PS - Attached below is a press announcement that is being distributed on
this work.
Media contact:
Allan Chen (510) 486-4210, a_c...@lbl.gov <mailto:a_c...@lbl.gov>
Technical contacts:
Ryan Wiser, (510) 486-5474, rhwi...@lbl.gov <mailto:rhwi...@lbl.gov>,
Ben Hoen, (845) 758-1896, bh...@lbl.gov <mailto:bh...@lbl.gov>
*New Berkeley Lab Study Finds that Residential Solar Photovoltaic
Systems Boost the Sales Price of California Homes *
*Berkeley, CA--*New research by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes
with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes
without solar systems."We find compelling evidence that solar PV systems
in California have boosted home sales prices," says Ben Hoen, the lead
researcher on the study and a Principal Research Associate at Berkeley
Lab. "These average sales price premiums appear to be comparable with
the average investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems
in California, and of course homeowners also benefit from energy bill
savings after PV system installation and prior to home sale."
The research finds that homes with PV in California have sold for a
premium, expressed in dollars per watt of installed PV, of approximately
$3.9 to $6.4/watt.This corresponds to an average home sales price
premium of approximately $17,000 for a relatively new 3,100 watt PV
system (the average size of PV systems in the Berkeley Lab dataset), and
compares to an average investment that homeowners have made to install
PV systems in California of approximately $5/W over the 2001-2009 period.
"This is a sizable effect," says co-author and Staff Scientist Ryan
Wiser of Berkeley Lab."This research might influence the decisions of
homeowners considering installing a PV system and of home buyers
considering buying a home with PV already installed. Even new home
builders that are contemplating PV as a component of their homes can
benefit from this research."
Approximately 2,100 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected solar PV have been
installed in the U.S.California has been and continues to be the
country's largest market for PV, with nearly 1,000 MW of installed
capacity.California is also approaching 100,000 individual PV systems
installed, more than 90% of which are residential.Though an increasing
number of homes with PV systems have sold, relatively little research
has been performed to estimate the impacts of those PV systems on home
sales prices.
The Berkeley Lab research is the first to empirically explore the
existence and magnitude of residential PV sales price impacts across a
large number of homes and over a wide geographic area.The research
analyzed a dataset of more than 72,000 California homes that sold from
2000 through mid-2009, approximately 2,000 of which had a PV system at
the time of sale."This is the most comprehensive and data-rich analysis
to date of the potential influence of PV systems on home sales prices,"
says co-author and San Diego State University Economics Department Chair
Mark Thayer.
The research controlled for a large number of factors that might
influence results, such as housing market fluctuations, neighborhood
effects, the age of the home, and the size of the home and the parcel on
which it was located.The resulting premiums associated with PV systems
were consistent across a large number of model specifications and
robustness tests.
The research also shows that, as PV systems age, the premium enjoyed at
the time of home sale decreases.Additionally, existing homes with PV
systems are found to have commanded a larger sales price premium than
new homes with similarly sized PV systems.
"One reason for the disparity between existing and new homes with PV
might be that new home builders also gain value from PV as a market
differentiator that speeds the home sales process, a factor not analyzed
in the Berkeley Lab study," says co-author and Berkeley Lab Principle
Scientific Engineering Associate Peter Cappers. "More research is
warranted to better understand these and related impacts."
==================================================================
This work was supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy (Solar Energy Technologies Program) of the U.S. Department of
Energy, by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and by the Clean
Energy States Alliance.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most
urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting
human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate
of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise
has been recognized with 12 Nobel prizes. The University of California
manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of
Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov <http://www.lbl.gov/>.
_Additional Information_
The report, "An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic
Energy Systems on Home Sales Prices in California," can be downloaded from:
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf
A 2-page summary of the report's key findings can be found at:
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf
For more information about DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Program, see
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/
For more information about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, see
http://www.nrel.gov/
For more information about the Clean Energy States Alliance, see
http://www.cleanenergystates.org/
For more information on the report, contact Ben Hoen (bh...@lbl.gov,
845-758-1896) or Ryan Wiser (rhwi...@lbl.gov, 510-486-5474).
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