For a 1 MW (megawatt) utility-scale solar farm, the approximate cost is $980,000, not including land acquisition. The total cost per watt is around $0.98, reflecting the significant cost savings from economies of scale compared to residential installations.

Leasing land: Between $1,000 and $5,000 per acre per year.
Buying land: The average cost to build a solar farm, including land, is $300,000 to $500,000 per acre.

Companies using automation in solar installation for utility-scale projects include
AES Corporation, Terabase Energy, Built Robotics, Charge Robotics, and Rosendin Electric

Terabase Energy Terafab is twice as fast installing solar farms.

China utilizes robotics extensively in its solar energy sector for both installation and maintenance, with some cleaning robots even powered by their own built-in solar panels to operate autonomously. A Chinese firm, Leapting, has used robots to install a 350MW solar farm in Australia and says each robot does the work of 3 or 4 humans, but much quicker and it's looking to 100% automate solar farm setup.

The primary components of these costs include equipment, installation labor, and land. Automation and new technology are critical to further lowering these costs, particularly for labor and installation.

Robotics and automation will transform solar farm construction into a faster, safer, and more precise process.

Site surveying: Autonomous ground robots, like Civ Robotics' CivDot, use GPS and mapping data to precisely mark coordinates for pile and racking systems, replacing the need for extensive manual labor.

Pile driving: Heavy-duty autonomous pile-driving machines, such as the Built Robotics RPD 35, can install hundreds of steel support beams with maximum accuracy. This increases speed, reduces installation errors, and frees human workers from dangerous, physically demanding tasks.