Annual Technology Baseline Cost and Performance Data for Electricity Generation

Offering detailed current and projected cost and performance data for renewable and conventional electricity generation technologies, compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It is the 2020 update of the Annual Technology Baseline, documented on a dedicated website.

Use Cases

• Analyze projected Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) trends across technologies like Wind and PV Photovoltaic Solar Energy.
• Compare technology-specific metrics such as Capacity Factor and Overnight Capital Cost for investment modeling.
• Assess cost components like Capital Expenditures (Capex) and Operations And Maintenance for technology roadmapping.
• Model future energy system scenarios using cost and performance projections for technologies including Battery Energy Storage and Geothermal.

Strengths

• Data is compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a leading research institution under the Department of Energy.
• Includes both current and projected data, supporting forward-looking analysis.
• Covers a wide range of technologies including Hydropower, Wind, PV Photovoltaic Solar Energy, Concentrating Solar Power, Geothermal, and Battery Energy Storage.

Limitations

• The specific data structure (rows, columns) and sample data are unavailable, hindering immediate technical assessment.
• The primary file format is listed as 'BIN', which may require specialized tools or conversion for analysis.
• The dataset represents a single annual snapshot (2020), limiting longitudinal analysis without accessing other years.

Provenance

Source

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Collection Method

Compiled and presented in Excel workbooks, with selected data also provided in Tableau workbooks and structured CSV files.

Time Range

Contains data current and projected from the 2020 Annual Technology Baseline.

Freshness

The metadata was last updated in March 2026, but the underlying data is for the 2020 Annual Technology Baseline.

Geography

The tags suggest a primary focus on the United States.