Non-hardware (soft) costs have become a major driver of U.S. photovoltaic (PV) system prices, and aggressive soft-cost-reduction pathways must be developed to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative's PV price targets. This report roadmaps the cost reductions and innovations necessary to achieve the SunShot soft-cost targets by 2020, focusing on advances in four soft-cost areas: (1) customer acquisition; (2) permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII); (3) installation labor; and (4) financing. A fifth soft-cost category-"other soft costs," which includes profit and overhead-was not explicitly benchmarked by past survey efforts and is not roadmapped here. Exploring ways to reduce this "other soft costs" category will be a subject of future research.

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As a result of the energy transition, an increasing number of Decentralized Energy Systems (DES) will be installed in the distribution grid in the future. Accordingly, new methods to systematically integrate the growing DES in distribution power systems must be developed utilizing the constantly evolving Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This paper proposes the Automated Data Model Integration of DES (ADMID) approach for the integration of DES into the ICT environment of the Distribution System Operator (DSO). The proposed ADMID utilizes the data model structure defined by the standard-series IEC 61850 and has been implemented as a Python package. The presented two Use Cases focus on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) on the DSO operational level following a four-stage test procedure, while this approach has enormous potential for advanced DSO applications. The test results obtained during simulation or real-time communication to field devices indicate that the utilization of IEC 61850-compliant data models is eligible for the proposed automation approach, and the implemented framework can be a considerable solution for the system integration in future distribution grids with a high share of DES. As a proof-of-concept study, the proposed ADMID approach requires additional development with a focus on the harmonization with the Common Information Model (CIM), which could significantly improve its functional interoperability and help it reach a higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL).