U.S. solar is weighed down by soft costs and policy inefficiencies: fragmented permitting, slow approvals, duplicative inspections, and high fees. Customer acquisition remains bloated by opaque pricing, long sales cycles, and high-commission models. Hardware is more expensive due to tariffs and policies that favor costly technologies. Together, these inefficiencies add more than $2/W – keeping solar + storage from becoming mainstream.
Tesla sees Australia as a model for what the US can do.
The solar and storage industry in the U.S. can cut residential solar + storage costs by 40% (or $2.04/W) – without subsidies. The biggest levers are:
$0.54/W from streamlined code requirements and approvals
$0.57/W from lower customer acquisition and labor costs
$0.67/W from driving down hardware costs
— Tesla Energy (@teslaenergy) August 29, 2025
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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