Wind Energy Costs Trending Towards an All-Time Low

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, February 1, 2012

A recent analysis of onshore wind energy cost trends, conducted jointly by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory “Recent Developments in the Levelized Cost of Energy from U.S. Wind Power Projects” estimates that the levelized cost of wind energy is now trending towards an all-time low within fixed wind resource areas. When only accounting for capital cost and capacity factor trends, the levelized cost of wind energy based on current turbine pricing is estimated to be ~5%-26% below the previous low in 2002-2003, depending on the quality of the wind resource. When also considering plausible assumptions for O&M, financing, and turbine reliability trends, levelized cost reductions are estimated at ~24-39% since 2002-2003. The levelized cost of wind energy in the best wind resource sites is approaching ~3 cents/kWh (with available federal tax incentives).

http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/wind-energy-costs-2-2012.pdf