Renewable Energy Has Achieved Cost Parity: Utility-scale solar ($28-117/MWh) and onshore wind ($23-139/MWh) now consistently outcompete fossil fuels, with coal costing $68-166/MWh and natural gas $77-130/MWh, making renewables the most economical choice for new electricity. . Renewable Energy Has Achieved Cost Parity: Utility-scale solar ($28-117/MWh) and onshore wind ($23-139/MWh) now consistently outcompete fossil fuels, with coal costing $68-166/MWh and natural gas $77-130/MWh, making renewables the most economical choice for new electricity. . Different methods of electricity generation can incur a variety of different costs, which can be divided into three general categories: 1) wholesale costs, or all costs paid by utilities associated with acquiring and distributing electricity to consumers, 2) retail costs paid by consumers, and 3). . Numbers calculated by financial advisory Lazard as of June 2025 estimate price ranges for the generation of one MWh of energy by different sources. While the data shows that it is always cheapest to produce electricity from fully depreciated facilities, renewable energy can nevertheless compete in. . Not all energy has been created equal – and that also applies to the cost of electricity generation. This also largely has to do with how much funding has gone into the research and development of these power sources over time, and also the scale of production. Typical generating technologies for end-use applications, such as combined heat and power or roof-top solar photovoltaics (PV), are described elsewhere in the. . The levelised cost of electricity produced from most forms of renewable power continued to fall year-on-year in 2023, with solar PV leading the cost reductions, followed by offshore wind.