Cost of Electricity Generation by Different Sources

Not all energy has been created equal – and that also applies to the cost of electricity generation. This also largely has to do with how much funding has gone into the research and development of these power sources over time, and also the scale of production. For example, larger-scale production facilities means that original equipment manufacturers can leverage economies of scale. Producing just a handful of wind turbines or solar panels means that the cost of each is astronomically high.

These were some of the reasons for solar being largely commercially unviable until 2016, when solar power became more affordable than gaspowered energy sources for the first time. As of 2023, solar is 14% cheaper than energy produced by gas. But if we look back to 2009, solar was 433% more costly than energy generated by gas.

Today, wind is the lowest cost energy source, followed by solar energy. If we forecast pricing to 2030, it is expected that the price of Solar energy will fall another 30% from 2020 pricing, and the cost of wind power should fall another 11% from 2020 pricing as well.

Meanwhile, the cost of Nuclear, Coal and Gas is expected to increase during the same time period.