According to a report Solar PV BOS Markets: Technologies, Costs and Leading Companies, 2013-2016 by GTM Research, in 2008, 67 per cent of an average project’s total cost was in the PV module, but now after a change, 68 per cent of total cost is in BOS including a variety of structural and electrical components, labour and soft costs.
This implies that the solar PV balance of system (BOS) market has emerged as the next force that may help drive down the costs of installed systems.
Given this new trend, the step-function reductions that will help solar energy at or below costs of other generation sources will come from BOS technologies and efficiencies over the next four years.
BOS manufacturers around the globe, as a result, are being squeezed as the market landscape becomes more crowded.
The report includes market sizing for both structural and electrical BOS, besides total BOS demand forecasts by market segments such as residential, non-residential and utility and major national markets like Germany, Italy, Rest of Europe, China, India, Japan, Rest of Asia and the US. The report also offers value-added BOS cost roadmaps for c-Si and CdTe, fixed-tilt and axis-tracking and residential, commercial and utility projects.
