In 2009, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for utility-scale solar photovoltaic generation was approximately $359 per megawatt-hour, unsubsidized, per Lazard's first LCOE report (subsequently published annually as Lazard LCOE+). Fifteen years later, in June 2024, Lazard's seventeenth annual LCOE+ report assessed the unsubsidized LCOE for new utility-scale solar PV at a mean of approximately $61/MWh, with a range of $29-96/MWh depending on project specifics — a decline of approximately 83% from the 2009 cost level. Onshore wind LCOE has followed a similar trajectory: 2009 unsubsidized at ~$135/MWh; 2024 at a mean of ~$50/MWh per Lazard LCOE+ V17.

The cost-decline story is one of the most dramatic in modern industrial history — comparable to the decline in computing cost per transistor (Moore's Law) or the decline in battery cost per kilowatt-hour through the 2010s and into the 2020s. The implication has been clear for years: solar and wind are now cost-competitive with — and in many cases cheaper than — new gas-fired or coal-fired generation in raw LCOE terms.