Energy · 2020

Solar becomes cheapest power

Module prices fall over 99% and solar undercuts fossil power.

Following Swanson's law, module prices dropped about 20% with every doubling of cumulative shipments, from about $100 per watt in 1975 to under $0.30 by 2020. The IEA's 2020 outlook called the best solar projects the cheapest electricity in history.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

PERC solar cell 1989

What it led to 2

Terawatt of solar 2022
Renewables overtake coal 2025

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Solar PV module price Latest: 0.12 $/W (2025 USD) (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Installed solar capacity Latest: 2.4k GW (2025) Source: Our World in Data

World electricity generation Latest: 31.8k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data