Full Title: Coal Cost Crossover 3.0: Local Renewables Plus Storage Create New Opportunities For Customer Savings And Community Reinvestment
Author(s): Michelle Solomon, Eric Gimon, Mike O'Boyle, Umed Paliwal, and Amol Phadke
Publisher(s): Energy Innovation
Publication Date: January 29, 2023
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In this report, the authors compare the cost of operating each continental U.S. coal plant in 2021, totaling 220 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity across the country, to the estimated costs of building new wind and solar generation. We consider the wind and solar costs within two geographic scopes: local to the coal plants (within 45 kilometers) and
regionally (roughly within the utility balancing area), finding that nearly all existing coal plants have multiple lower-cost clean energy replacement options.
This research shows all but one of the country’s 210 coal plants are more expensive to operate than either new wind or new solar. If the IRA’s new energy community tax credit is included in the equation, 199 of the 210 plants are more expensive to operate compared to local solar resources sited within 45 kilometers of the plant. Local wind resources are also cost-effective and readily available, with 104 plants having cheaper wind resources within 45 kilometers.