Are Renewable Energy Technologies Competitive?

The electricity generation cost of a technology is often measured in terms of levelized cost of electricity or LCOE despite fundamental flaw is that it treats the intermittent and no-dispatchable renewable technologies equally with the fully dispatchable electricity generation technologies. The LCOE of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, has been rapidly falling over time as the capital costs that include not only the cost of equipment but also the entire installation of the plant is falling including balance of system (BoS) and soft costs. One would wonder why have the costs of renewable energy, particularly solar, falling down? A comparison of LCOE reported by various sources or studies is often misleading, and therefore such a comparison should be avoided. technologies. The objective of this article is to illustrate the levelized costs of electricity generation with the values of LCOE estimated from various sources. We also present the declining trends of renewable energy costs and try to explain the potential drivers of the decline. We also explain the factors that affect the LCOE and present renewable energy cost trends with the discussion of the potential drivers of the declining trend and how.