The IEA reported that in 2023, an estimated 96% of newly installed, utility-scale solar PV and onshore wind capacity had lower generation costs than new coal and natural gas. Three-quarters of these new wind and solar PV plants offered cheaper power than existing fossil fuel facilities.
While solar got 89% cheaper and wind 70%, the price of electricity from coal declined by merely 2%. The stagnating price of coal power in the last decade is not unusual. The historical development of the price of coal power is nowhere close to what we’ve been seeing for renewable power.
The report follows the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) conclusion in its World Energy Outlook 2020 that solar power is now the cheapest electricity in history. The technology is cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries, the outlook found.
But though it was once true, that assumption has actually been obliterated by a recent decline in solar and wind costs over the past decade. When it comes to the cost of energy from new power plants, onshore wind and solar are now the cheapest sources—costing less than gas, geothermal, coal, or nuclear.
Electricity generation from renewables is getting rapidly cheaper. What about its competitors? Let’s look first at coal. Why is electricity from coal not getting cheaper? Coal, the world’s largest source of electricity, is also included in the chart. The global price of electricity from new coal (LCOE) declined from $111 to $109.
Utility-scale solar arrays are now the least costly option to build and operate. Wind power has also shown a dramatic decline—the lifetime costs of new wind farms dropped by 71 percent in the last decade. Solar got cheaper without you even realizing it. Infographic by Sara Chodosh
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