Estimated Capital Cost of Power Generating Plant Technologies (USD per kW)

Based on the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) which forms the basis for the calculation of 2007 Annual Energy Outlook, the estimated capital cost of constructing a power generating plant per type of technology is as follow. This is assuming that the order was placed in 2006;

Technology	Year on line	Cost ($/kW)
Advanced open cycle gas turbine	2008	398
Conventional open cycle gas turbine	2008	420
Advanced gas/oil combined cycle	2009	594
Conventional gas/oil combined cycle	2009	603
Distributed generation (base load)	2009	859
Distributed generation (peak load)	2008	1032
Advanced combined cycle with sequestration	2010	1185
Wind	2009	1208
Coal-fired plant with scrubber	2010	1290
IGCC	2010	1490
Conventional hydropower	2010	1500
Biomass	2010	1869
Geothermal	2010	1880
Advanced nuclear	2011	2081
IGCC with carbon sequestration	2010	2134
Solar thermal	2009	3149
Fuel cell	2009	4520
Photovoltaic	2008	4751

Based on the above table, advanced open cycle gas turbine has the least cost and one of the fastest to construct (2-3 years), probably due to its matured technology as compared to photovoltaic, fuel cell, and solar thermal technologies, which has a cost of more than 10 times of the advanced open cycle gas turbine plants.

Though the fuel source is clean, cheap and renewable, most renewable power plant technologies utilizing this kind of fuel are the most expensive as compared to plants using fossil fuels. Among renewable energy technologies, wind power plant is the less expensive. Aside from capital extensiveness, low capacity factor (except geothermal) makes the cost of energy produced from renewable energy even higher.

Technologies	Capacity factor (%)
Gas turbine combined cycle	80-90
Nuclear	90
Average US coal plant	68
Biomass	68
Geothermal	90
Hydropower	44
Wind turbine	30
Solar	20

Typical capacity factors for power generating plants (%)

Note that this cost is based on the United States where plant equipment is more likely to be sourced and the unit size of generating units are relatively bigger than what other small countries, usually, have. Thus, the cost per megawatt of constructing a power plant will be higher to other countries outside of the United States and Europe and if the generating unit size is lower. In the Philippines, for example, the cost of constructing a coal power plant is estimated to range from $1.6 million to $2.0 million per megawatt as compared to around $1.3 million per megawatt in the US.