Report Shows Renewable Electricity Plunging in Costs

Joint IEA-NEA investigation is optimistic about renewables over fossil fuels

A Joint IEA-NEA report has just been released. This is the latest in a series of reports which look at the LCOE (Levelised Cost of Electricity).  It analysed 181 plants in 22 countries, from nuclear, fossil fuel and renewable generators. It says, “The cost of producing electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar has been falling for several years. Now, a new report provides in detail the contrasting costs for different power generation technologies around the world and shows that renewable sources can produce electricity at close to or even below the cost of new fossil fuel-based power stations.” It also shows that new nuclear power stations can generate baseload power more cheaply than other established “baseload” sources such as coal- and gas-fired power plants over the full lifetime of facilities when financing costs are relatively low.

This report shows that the costs of renewables continue to decline, all over the world, even though different countries have different policies, technologies and renewables availability. No single technology proves the cheapest form of electricity generation under all circumstances: many factors determine the final cost of any investment, principally local influences such as market structure, policy environment and resource levels available.

https://www.iea.org/bookshop/711-Projected_Costs_of_Generating_Electricity

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