The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the construction costs for US power plants (utility-scale electric generators with a capacity greater than 1 MW) have dropped over 2013-2015 and released the 2015 capacity-weighted average construction cost per plant and per technology type.
However, the mentioned costs exclude government grants, tax benefits, and other incentives and focuses mostly on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from conventional and renewables projects. The study points out in particular wind, natural gas and solar plants as they were the most common newly commissioned capacity types.
The respective average capacity-weighted costs for the installation of solar PV plants, wind turbines and natural gas generators and solar PV plants are US$2,921/kW, US$1,661/kW and US$696/kW. These figures represent average and depend of the project size. Costs tend to be higher for smaller wind power plants. As for the gas turbines, the combined-cycle units are cheaper on average (US$614/kW) than combustion turbines (US$779/kW) and internal combustion engine units. (US$1,798/kW). The solar PV capacity-weighted costs differ depending on the technology: axis-based sun tracking facilities are slightly more costly than those installed at fixed angles.
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