Supply Curves for Solar PV-Generated Electricity for the United States

Energy supply curves attempt to estimate the relationship between the cost of an energy resource and the amount of energy available at or below that cost. In general, an energy supply curve is a series of step functions with each step representing a particular group or category of energy resource. The length of the step indicates how much of that resource is deployable or accessible at a given cost. Energy supply curves have been generated for a number of renewable energy sources including biomass fuels and geothermal, as well as conservation technologies. Generating a supply curve for solar photovoltaics (PV) has particular challenges due to the nature of the resource. The United States has a massive solar resource base -- many orders of magnitude greater than the total consumption of energy. In this report, we examine several possible methods for generating PV supply curves based exclusively on rooftop deployment.