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EIA: Wind and solar costs fall in US

Published by , Assistant Editor
Energy Global,


According to 2018 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for newly constructed utility-scale electric generators in the US, annual capacity-weighted average construction costs1 for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and onshore wind turbines have continued to decrease. Natural gas generator costs also decreased slightly in 2018.


Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Generator Construction Costs and Annual Electric Generator Inventory

From 2013 to 2018, costs for solar fell 50%, costs for wind fell 27%, and costs for natural gas fell 13%. Together, these three generation technologies accounted for more than 98% of total capacity added to the electricity grid in the US in 2018. Investment in US electric-generating capacity in 2018 increased by 9.3% from 2017, driven by natural gas capacity additions, the EIA states.

Solar

The average construction cost for solar PV generators is higher than wind and natural gas generators on a dollar-per-kilowatt basis, although the gap is narrowing as the cost of solar falls rapidly. From 2017 to 2018, the average construction cost of solar in the US fell 21% to US$1848 per kW, the EIA states. The decrease was driven by falling costs for crystalline silicon fixed-tilt panels, which were at their lowest average construction cost of US$1767 per kW in 2018.

Crystalline silicon fixed-tilt panels – which accounted for more than one-third of the solar capacity added in the US in 2018, at 1.7 GW – had the second-highest share of solar capacity additions by technology. Crystalline silicon axis-based tracking panels had the highest share, with 2.0 GW (41% of total solar capacity additions) of added generating capacity at an average cost of US$1834 per kW.

Wind

According to the EIA, total US wind capacity additions increased 18% from 2017 to 2018 as the average construction cost for wind turbines dropped 16% to US$1382 per kW. All wind farm size classes had lower average construction costs in 2018. The largest decreases were at wind farms with 1 MW to 25 MW of capacity; construction costs at these farms decreased by 22.6% to US$1790 per kW.

Natural gas

Compared with other generation technologies, natural gas technologies received the highest US investment in 2018, accounting for 46% of total capacity additions for all energy sources, the EIA states. Growth in natural gas electric-generating capacity was led by significant additions in new capacity from combined-cycle facilities, which almost doubled the previous year's additions for that technology. Combined-cycle technology construction costs dropped by 4% in 2018 to US$858 per kW.

  1. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/generatorcosts/

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