page_title: Cost of electricity by source
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: Cost of electricity by source / Regional studies / Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: The image is a screenshot from the cited source (the Australian Energy Technology Assessment 2013 Model Update, Figure 8), which shows the levelised costs of electricity by source in NSW (plus a couple of other stated regions as stated for those technologies outside), without a carbon price, in 2012. Français&#160;: Ce graphique est une capture d'écran de la source citée (Modélisation mise à jour en 2013 pour l'évaluation des technologies énergétiques en AUstralie, Figure 8), montrant les coûts nivelés de l'électricité par source en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud (et quelques autres régions déclarées comme indiqué pour ces technologies à l'extérieur), mais sans inclure de composante "prix du carbone" pour l'année 2012.
context_page_description: Different methods of electricity generation can incur significantly different costs, and these costs can occur at significantly different times relative to when the power is used. Calculations of these costs can be made at the point of connection to a load or to the electricity grid, so that they may or may not include the transmission costs. The costs include the initial capital, and the costs of continuous operation, fuel, and maintenance as well as the costs of de-commissioning and remediating any environmental damage.
  For comparing different methods, it is useful to compare costs per unit of energy which is typically given per kilowatt-hour or megawatt-hour. This type of calculation assists policymakers, researchers and others to guide discussions and decision making but is usually complicated by the need to take account of differences in timing by means of a discount rate.
context_section_description: According to various studies, the cost for wind and solar has dramatically reduced since 2006. For example, the Australian Climate Council states that over the 5 years between 2009–2014 solar costs fell by 75% making them comparable to coal, and are expected to continue dropping over the next 5 years by another 45% from 2014 prices. They also found that wind has been cheaper than coal since 2013, and that coal and gas will become less viable as subsidies are withdrawn and there is the expectation that they will eventually have to pay the costs of pollution.
  A CO2CRC report, printed on 27 November 2015, titled "Wind, solar, coal and gas to reach similar costs by 2030:", provides the following updated situation in Australia. "The updated LCOE analysis finds that in 2015 natural gas combined cycle and supercritical pulverised coal (both black and brown) plants have the lowest LCOEs of the technologies covered in the study. Wind is the lowest cost large-scale renewable energy source, while rooftop solar panels are competitive with retail electricity prices. By 2030 the LCOE ranges of both conventional coal and gas technologies as well as wind and large-scale solar converge to a common range of A$50 to A$100 per megawatt hour."
  An updated report, posted on 27 September 2017, titled "Renewables will be cheaper than coal in the future. Here are the numbers", indicated that a 100% renewables system is competitive with new-build supercritical (ultrasupercritical) coal, which, according to the Jacobs calculations in the report link above, would come in at around A$75(80) per MWh between 2020 and 2050. This projection for supercritical coal is consistent with other studies by the CO2CRC in 2015 (A$80 per MWh) and used by CSIRO in 2017 (A$65–80 per MWh).
caption: LCOEs by source in Australia in 2012.
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