Solar facades are equivalent in cost to expensive cladding materials such as polished stone. Ove Arup has calculated however, that when compared to more conventional cladding materials such as glass or steel, installing solar photovoltaics adds only a marginal extra cost, some 2-5%, to the total construction costs of a commercial building 14. The savings in electricity bills go some way to ameliorating the initial costs.

The total cost of a solar facade incorporates several components: photovoltaic panels, the cladding system and the electrical wiring and inverter costs.

Production costs of solar panels are normally presented in pounds per watt. The UK’s first solar powered office block is a building at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle. Based on the experience of this project, the purchase price of solar panels is £4.10 per watt. On average it is possible to install around 100 watts of solar panels per square metre of solar facade. The total cost of the Newcastle solar facade, including electrical and installation costs, has been calculated at £900 per square metre of facade 15.

It should also be noted that each square metre of a solar facade can generate around 1,800 units of electricity over its 25 year lifetime. Therefore, each square metre of solar application will in its lifetime avoid the purchase of around £70 of electricity at current prices.