Soft costs decreased appreciably from 2016-2017 in both "utility-scale" categories (Fixed-Tilt, and One-Axis Tracker), and have increased slightly at the smaller "commercial" and "residential" scales. Across all scales, soft costs claim a larger portion because other costs are falling more quickly.
Only at residential scale has soft cost growth consumed much of the savings in other costs:
$-0.18/(watt installed) total cost,
$+0.16/(watt installed) soft costs.
At commercial scale:
$-0.32/(watt installed) total cost,
$+0.05/(watt installed) soft costs.
While this direction of change is certainly suboptimal, I don't think the magnitude is worrisome yet.
EDIT: paragraph/line breaks for clarity of presentation.
Soft costs decreased appreciably from 2016-2017 in both "utility-scale" categories (Fixed-Tilt, and One-Axis Tracker), and have increased slightly at the smaller "commercial" and "residential" scales. Across all scales, soft costs claim a larger portion because other costs are falling more quickly.
Only at residential scale has soft cost growth consumed much of the savings in other costs: $-0.18/(watt installed) total cost, $+0.16/(watt installed) soft costs.
At commercial scale: $-0.32/(watt installed) total cost, $+0.05/(watt installed) soft costs.
While this direction of change is certainly suboptimal, I don't think the magnitude is worrisome yet.
EDIT: paragraph/line breaks for clarity of presentation.