Renewable energy technologies and fuels offer tremendous opportunities to meet economic, social, environmental and development goals. They are also now the primary economic solution for providing electricity to the 1.3 billion people worldwide currently without access. These pages provide you with a wide range of resources on the costs and performance of these technologies.

To facilitate and streamline information, we have divided costing information by technology and sector. The technology pages include a brief overview of the technology as well as a list of relevant publications, presentations and charts for your use.

The technologies covered to date by the IRENA costing team include power generation technologies – biomass, concentrating solar power, hydropower, solar photovoltaics and wind – and transport technologies– biodiesel, bioethanol, biomethane, electric vehicles and plug in hybrids electric vehicles.

IRENA has analysed the current costs and performance of a range of electricity storage technologies in stationary applications, as well as the cost reduction and performance improvement potential to 2030 in the report “Electricity Storage and Renewables: Costs and Markets to 2030”.

Information on the costs of renewables in stationary applications will be available soon.

The Power to Change: Solar and Wind Cost Reduction Potential to 2025

Increasing economies of scale, more competitive supply chains and further technological improvements will continue reducing the costs of solar and wind power. The same factors will also boost the availability of these key renewable power sources at night and in varying weather conditions.

• June 2016
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• Costs, Power
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• English

Recent Publications

Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2019

IRENA’s latest global cost study shows solar and wind power reaching new price lows. The r...

Energy subsidies: Evolution in the global energy transformation to 2050

The energy sector lacks a standard definition of subsidies. This paper contribut...

Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018

IRENA’s latest global cost study shows solar and wind power reaching new price ...

Sugarcane bioenergy in Southern Africa: Economic potential for sustainable scale-up

This study reviews the bioenergy potential from sugarcane and associated develop...

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