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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).<br>
<br>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Subject: </th>
<td>Berkeley Lab Study Finds that Solar Photovoltaic Systems
Boost the Sales Price of California Homes</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:36:58 -0700</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">From: </th>
<td>Ryan Wiser <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rhwiser@lbl.gov"><rhwiser@lbl.gov></a></td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:nrel@dante.lbl.gov">nrel@dante.lbl.gov</a></td>
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Dear Colleague:</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">We are pleased to announce
the completion of a new Berkeley Lab report: <span style=""> </span>“An
Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy
Systems on Home Sales Prices in California.” <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">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.<span
style=""> </span>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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">This research analyzes
nearly 2000 California homes that have sold with PV installed.<span
style=""> </span>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.<span
style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Specifically, some of the
key findings from the analysis include:</span></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><span style="">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.<span style=""> </span></span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="">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).<span style=""> </span></span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="">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. <span
style=""> </span></span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="">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. </span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style=""><span
style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span
style="">The analysis finds that sales price premiums
decline as PV systems age.<span style=""> </span></span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="">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.<span style="">
</span></span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span style="">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. </span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The full report can be
downloaded from: </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf"><span
style="">http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">A 2-page summary of the
report’s key findings can be found at: </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf"><span
style="">http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style=""><br>
All the best,</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Ryan Wiser, Ben Hoen, and
Peter Cappers </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">PS - Attached below is a
press announcement that is being distributed on this work.</span></p>
<div style="border-width: medium medium 2.25pt; border-style: none
none double; border-color: -moz-use-text-color
-moz-use-text-color windowtext; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="border: medium none; padding:
0in;"><span style=""> </span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style=""><br>
Media contact: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style="">Allan Chen (510) 486-4210, </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:a_chen@lbl.gov"><span
class="Hyperlink1"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">a_chen@lbl.gov</span></span></a><span
style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style=""><br>
Technical contacts: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style="">Ryan Wiser, (510) 486-5474, </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:rhwiser@lbl.gov"><span
style="">rhwiser@lbl.gov</span></a><span style="">, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style="">Ben Hoen, (845) 758-1896, </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:bhoen@lbl.gov"><span
style="">bhoen@lbl.gov</span></a><span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b
style=""><span style=""><span style=""> </span>New Berkeley
Lab Study Finds that Residential Solar Photovoltaic Systems
Boost the Sales Price of California Homes </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif";">Berkeley,
CA–</span></b><span style=""> 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.<span style=""> </span>“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.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">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.<span style=""> </span>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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">“This is a sizable effect,”
says co-author and Staff Scientist Ryan Wiser of Berkeley Lab.<span
style=""> </span>“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.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Approximately 2,100 megawatts
(MW) of grid-connected solar PV have been installed in the
U.S.<span style=""> </span>California has been and continues
to be the country’s largest market for PV, with nearly 1,000
MW of installed capacity.<span style=""> </span>California
is also approaching 100,000 individual PV systems installed,
more than 90% of which are residential.<span style=""> </span>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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">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.<span style=""> </span>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.<span
style=""> </span>“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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">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.<span style=""> </span>The resulting premiums
associated with PV systems were consistent across a large
number of model specifications and robustness tests.<span
style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The research also shows that,
as PV systems age, the premium enjoyed at the time of home
sale decreases.<span style=""> </span>Additionally, existing
homes with PV systems are found to have commanded a larger
sales price premium than new homes with similarly sized PV
systems.<span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">“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.” <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">==================================================================</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">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 </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.lbl.gov/"
target="_blank"><span style="">www.lbl.gov</span></a><span
style="">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="">Additional Information</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style="">The report, “An Analysis of the Effects
of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems on Home Sales
Prices in California,” can be downloaded from: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf"><span
style="">http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><span style="">A 2-page summary of the report’s key
findings can be found at: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height:
normal;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf"><span
style="">http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e-rs.pdf</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="">For
more information about DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies
Program, see </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/"><span style="">http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="">For
more information about the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, see </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nrel.gov/"><span style="">http://www.nrel.gov/</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="">For
more information about the Clean Energy States Alliance, see </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.cleanenergystates.org/"><span style="">http://www.cleanenergystates.org/</span></a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="">For
more information on the report, contact Ben Hoen (<a
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:bhoen@lbl.gov">bhoen@lbl.gov</a>, 845-758-1896)
or Ryan Wiser (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:rhwiser@lbl.gov">rhwiser@lbl.gov</a>,
510-486-5474).</span></p>
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