Costs of Various Electric Power Resources

Energy efficiency is significantly cheaper than producing electricity with new power plants (see chart) and offers additional economic and environmental benefits.

Note: Levelized costs attempt to provide full cost comparisons by factoring in expenditures for construction, fuel, and operations, among other costs (but do not include transmission and distribution costs, nor do they factor in a future cost on greenhouse gas emissions or externalities, such as air pollution and public health impacts). Cost assessments can be expected to change over time.

Source: Adapted from Lazard’s 2009 “Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis, Version 3.0.”