Solar LCOE Has Structural Floor

Utility-scale solar has achieved sub-$0.02/kWh LCOE in high-irradiance markets, but that floor is now largely structural — module prices bottomed out after the Chinese polysilicon glut and are recovering. The next cost lever is balance-of-system (racking, wiring, land prep), which now represents 60–70% of total installed cost in the U.S. Companies compressing BoS through standardized tracker systems and pre-engineered mounting solutions (e.g., Nextracker, Array Technologies) carry more durable margin than module manufacturers exposed to commodity cycles. Investors should underweight pure-play module exposure and overweight installation-layer technology platforms with recurring software revenue from performance monitoring.