Utility-Scale Solar, 2025 Edition: Analysis of Empirical Plant-level Data from U.S. Ground-mounted PV, PV+battery, and CSP Plants (exceeding 5 MWAC)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory compiled and synthesized empirical data on the U.S. utility-scale solar sector. Utility-scale solar is defined here to include ground-mounted systems larger than 5MW-AC. Smaller projects are covered in Berkeley Lab's separate U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage annual data update. The focus is on utility-scale solar projects, though the "Wholesale Market Value" sections often contain data inclusive of all utility-scale solar installations. Data sources are diverse but include data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and state agencies. The latest update contains project-level data on 1,760 solar projects installed through 2024.
The update includes the resulting data synthesis covering:
(1) Deployment and Technology Trends
(2) Capital Costs (CapEx) and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Costs
(3) Performance (Capacity Factors)
(4) Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Prices
(5) Wholesale Market Value and Net Value
(6) PV+Battery Hybrid Plants (Deployment, CapEx, LCOE, PPAs)
(7) Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) Plants
(8) Capacity in Interconnection Queues
These data are made available in several formats, including a summary slide deck, a public data file with non-confidential data on 57 tabs and additional visualizations, and data visualizations.
Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | public |
| bureauCode |
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| contactPoint |
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"fn": "Joachim Seel",
"@type": "vcard:Contact",
"hasEmail": "mailto:jseel@lbl.gov"
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| description | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory compiled and synthesized empirical data on the U.S. utility-scale solar sector. Utility-scale solar is defined here to include ground-mounted systems larger than 5MW-AC. Smaller projects are covered in Berkeley Lab's separate U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage annual data update. The focus is on utility-scale solar projects, though the "Wholesale Market Value" sections often contain data inclusive of all utility-scale solar installations. Data sources are diverse but include data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and state agencies. The latest update contains project-level data on 1,760 solar projects installed through 2024. The update includes the resulting data synthesis covering: (1) Deployment and Technology Trends (2) Capital Costs (CapEx) and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Costs (3) Performance (Capacity Factors) (4) Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Prices (5) Wholesale Market Value and Net Value (6) PV+Battery Hybrid Plants (Deployment, CapEx, LCOE, PPAs) (7) Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) Plants (8) Capacity in Interconnection Queues These data are made available in several formats, including a summary slide deck, a public data file with non-confidential data on 57 tabs and additional visualizations, and data visualizations. |
| distribution |
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"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Project Page with More Information",
"format": "HTML",
"accessURL": "https://emp.lbl.gov/utility-scale-solar/",
"mediaType": "text/html",
"description": "The project page includes a power point presentation, data files and interactive data visualizations."
},
{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "User guide for Utility-Scale Solar Generation and Market Value Data File 2025.pdf",
"format": "pdf",
"mediaType": "application/pdf",
"description": "A user guide to the Plant-level Hourly Generation Estimates.",
"downloadURL": "https://data.openei.org/files/8541/User%20guide%20for%20Utility-Scale%20Solar%20Generation%20and%20Market%20Value%20Data%20File%202025.pdf"
},
{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Project-level annual energy and capacity value estimates through 2024.xlsx",
"format": "xlsx",
"mediaType": "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet",
"description": "Annual (2012-2024) energy and capacity value (both expressed in $2024/MWh) by EIA plant ID for the seven organized markets and 24 additional balancing areas (AZPS, BANC, BPAT, CISO, CPLE, DUK, ERCO, FPC, FPL, HECO, IID, IPCO, ISNE, LDWP, MISO, NEVP, NYIS, PACE, PACW, PJM, PNM, PSCO, SCEG, SOCO, SRP, SWPP, TEC, TEPC, TVA, WACM, WALC).",
"downloadURL": "https://data.openei.org/files/8541/Project-level%20annual%20energy%20and%20capacity%20value%20estimates%20through%202024.xlsx"
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{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Plant-level Hourly Generation Estimates.zip",
"format": "zip",
"mediaType": "application/zip",
"description": "Hourly plant-level generation estimates (2012-2024) based on plant-specific technical parameters and historical irradiance records from the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), (2012-2020) and The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR), (2021-2024). The numbers in the file names represent EIA plant IDs. gen_SAM represents the simple output of NREL's Solar Advisory Model, gen_debias_output incorporates official plant-level monthly or annual generation records (EIA 928) and ISO solar profiles. gen_clean is our best post-curtailment generation estimate, gen_curtailed represents hourly curtailments for plants in CAISO and ERCOT.",
"downloadURL": "https://data.openei.org/files/8541/Plant-level%20Hourly%20Generation%20Estimates.zip"
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{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "2025 Utility-Scale Solar Data Update.xlsx",
"format": "xlsx",
"mediaType": "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet",
"description": "Public data file with non-confidential data on 57 tabs and additional visualizations not included in the main briefing.",
"downloadURL": "https://data.openei.org/files/8541/2025%20Utility-Scale%20Solar%20Data%20Update%20%281%29.xlsx"
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{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Utility Scale Solar 2025 Edition Slides.pdf",
"format": "pdf",
"mediaType": "application/pdf",
"description": "Summary of main findings on 84 slides.",
"downloadURL": "https://data.openei.org/files/8541/Utility%20Scale%20Solar%202025%20Edition%20Slides%20%281%29.pdf"
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| identifier | https://data.openei.org/submissions/8541 |
| issued | 2025-09-25T06:00:00Z |
| keyword |
[
"Berkeley Lab",
"CSP",
"LCOE",
"PPA",
"PV",
"Power Purchase Agreements",
"battery",
"capacity",
"capacity factors",
"capital costs",
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"interconnection queue",
"market analysis",
"market value",
"operating costs",
"photovoltaic",
"plant-level",
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"power",
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"solar power",
"utility-scale",
"utility-scale solar",
"wholesale market value"
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|
| landingPage | https://data.openei.org/submissions/8541 |
| license | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| modified | 2025-10-17T14:48:27Z |
| programCode |
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"019:000",
"019:008"
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|
| projectNumber |
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|
| projectTitle | Analysis of Solar Energy Markets 2.0 |
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"name": "Lawrence Berkeley National Lab",
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| title | Utility-Scale Solar, 2025 Edition: Analysis of Empirical Plant-level Data from U.S. Ground-mounted PV, PV+battery, and CSP Plants (exceeding 5 MWAC) |
