Switched On Clean Power Costs Split After Years of Alignment
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Mar 26, 2026 Amar Vasdev, a senior associate at BNEF who leads the Levelized Cost of Electricity work, explains shifting clean-power economics. He discusses why LCOE matters and its limits. He breaks down 2025 trends: falling battery costs, rising solar and gas costs, regional competitiveness, and how solar plus storage stacks up against gas across markets.
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LCOE Is A Midpoint Not A Verdict
- LCOE is a midpoint metric that shows the long-term offtake price needed to cover costs and hit returns.
- Amar Vasdev warns LCOE can't compare technologies' system roles directly and should feed into hourly power-system models for context.
Allow Users To Recalculate LCOE Inputs
- Share assumptions transparently and let users re-run the valuation model to test alternate inputs.
- BNEF offers its discounted cash-flow engine to clients so they can produce their own LCOE variations.
Costs Diverged In 2025 With Batteries Falling Fast
- 2025 was mixed: most technologies saw higher LCOEs, but battery storage fell sharply by ~27%.
- Rising solar and onshore wind LCOEs were driven by China market reforms and lower-quality project sites; battery pack oversupply cut storage costs.