Value chain · CLM-0263
In plain terms
A widely used financial-industry cost report estimates 2026 U.S. power costs, without subsidy, as follows: utility solar 40-98 dollars per megawatt-hour, onshore wind 37-99, offshore wind 105-167, new gas power plants 51-129 (combined-cycle) or 144-276 (fast-response peaker plants), new nuclear 175-255, and new coal 72-177. These are today's costs only; the report does not attempt to project what these costs will be in future decades.
The claim as recorded
Lazard's 2026 LCOE+ (v19.0) gives unsubsidised U.S. LCOE ranges of 40-98 USD/MWh for utility solar PV, 37-99 USD/MWh for onshore wind, 105-167 USD/MWh for offshore wind, 51-129 USD/MWh for gas combined cycle, 144-276 USD/MWh for gas peaking, 175-255 USD/MWh for U.S. nuclear, and 72-177 USD/MWh for coal, all as a single 2026 snapshot with no forward projection.
Scope and limits
US-only; single-year (2026) snapshot, not a projection - do not extrapolate to 2050 from this source; solar and wind figures are UNFIRMED generation cost and are not directly comparable to the firm/dispatchable technologies in the same table without the firming-cost adjustment in CLM-0264; Lazard states explicitly this analysis does not represent total system cost.
What it assumes
capacity factor: solar utility 20-30%, wind onshore 30-55%, wind offshore 45-55%, gas peaking 10-15%, nuclear 89-94%, coal 65-85%, gas CC 30-90%; capital structure 60% debt at 8% interest, 40% equity at 12% cost (after-tax IRR/WACC 7.7%); facility life 25-35 years (renewables), 30 years (gas), 40 years (coal), 60-80 years (nuclear); unsubsidised.
Where it comes from
LCOE v19.0 appendix table: "LCOE $/MWh" rows for Solar PV Utility (40-98), Wind Onshore (37-99), Wind Offshore (105-167), Gas Peaking (144-276), US Nuclear (175-255), Coal (72-177), Gas Combined Cycle (51-129).
Basis: USD2026, NOMINAL (Lazard does not label this explicitly; inferred from undeflated year-over-year presentation), UNFIRMED (solar/wind) mixed with FIRMED-by-design conventional technologies
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-021 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0263
CLM-0263, Energy Aperture, as of 2026.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-146
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