Research and analysis

Electricity generation costs 2023

Report on levelised cost estimates for electricity generation technologies, detailing methodology, data and assumptions.

• From: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
• Published: 4 August 2023
• Last updated: 16 November 2023 — See all updates

Documents

Electricity generation costs 2023 (updated 16 November 2023)

PDF, 705 KB, 37 pages

Annex A: Additional estimates and key assumptions (updated 16 November 2023)

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 124 KB

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Annex B: Example levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) calculator

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 83 KB

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Details

Update November 2023

Floating Offshore Wind and Tidal Stream Energy updated (Section 2 and Annex A) alongside the Review of power generation costs for floating offshore wind and tidal stream energy technologies research.

This report presents levelised costs for electricity generation technologies. A ‘levelised cost’ is the average cost of the lifetime of the plant per MWh of electricity generated. They reflect the cost of building, operating and decommissioning a generic plant for each technology.

The report details the methodology, data and assumptions used to generate the levelised cost estimates.

Published 4 August 2023
Last updated 16 November 2023 + show all updates

1. 16 November 2023

   Floating Offshore Wind and Tidal Stream Energy updated (Section 2 and Annex A) alongside the Review of power generation costs for floating offshore wind and tidal stream energy technologies research.

2. 20 October 2023

   The August 2023 version of this report had a lower onshore wind load factor which we have now updated to reflect internal modelling used within the department. Updates: Section 2: Onshore wind, p12, tables 2 and 3; the load factor update reduces the onshore wind LCOE - Section 4 charts and tables, pp23-32; Annex A onshore wind columns now reflect the onshore wind load factor change; Section 2 text: Carbon prices (p18) updated to refer and link to published carbon appraisal prices.

3. 4 August 2023

   First published.