Average U.S. construction costs for solar generation continued to fall in 2019

The annual capacity-weighted average construction costs for solar photovoltaic systems in the United States continued to decrease in 2019, dropping by a little less than 3%, according to our latest data on newly constructed utility-scale electric generators. The average costs for wind turbines remained relatively stable in 2019, increasing $9 per kilowatt (kW), or a little less than 1% from the 2018 average. Costs for natural gas-fired generators had the largest change from 2018 to 2019, increasing $241/kW, or almost 29%.