International Renewable Energy Agency, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024, Abu Dhabi, July 2025, ISBN 978-92-9260-669-5, 216 pages
Source ID
SRC-365
Citation
International Renewable Energy Agency, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024, Abu Dhabi, July 2025, ISBN 978-92-9260-669-5, 216 pages
URL or path
https://www.irena.org/Publications/2025/Jun/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2024; PDF at https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2025/Jul/IRENA_TEC_RPGC_in_2024_2025.pdf; research/SRC-IRENACOST_RPGC_2024.pdf; text at research/SRC-IRENACOST_RPGC_2024.txt
Type
Official statistical and analytical publication of an intergovernmental agency
Hierarchy tier
2
Published
2025-07
Accessed
2026-08-22
Snapshot
PDF archived 22 August 2026, 216 pages, 51.5 MB, full text layer; PDF created 16 July 2025
Claims
The least-cost conclusion in the Lebanon limb; utility-scale solar costs
Status
READ_IN_PART
Version history
The register keeps changing after the book is fixed in print. Each entry below was added to this row in the order shown.
RETRIEVED AND READ 22 AUGUST 2026. IT WAS IDENTIFIED ONLY BY READING SRC-322'S ENDNOTES, where it is note 46 and is the sole authority for that report's conclusion that 'Calculated per kilowatt-hour, off-grid solar will likely never outperform the economies of scale of utility-scale systems'. THE CITATION DOES NOT SUPPORT THE HALF OF THE COMPARISON THAT MATTERS, AND THE VOCABULARY SWEEP IS THE EVIDENCE. Occurrences across the full extracted text of all 216 pages: rooftop 0, household 0, distributed generation 0, distributed solar 0, mini-grid 0, self-consumption 0, prosumer 0, off-grid 1, behind-the-meter 2, residential 2 and BOTH of those are about battery storage application shares rather than solar cost, small-scale 3 of which two concern hydropower and one is a methodology aside. THIS IS A UTILITY-SCALE COST REPORT. It publishes no rooftop, residential or off-grid solar cost series at all, so it can evidence the utility-scale side of the comparison and cannot evidence the off-grid side. A Chapter 8 sentence printing the least-cost conclusion in its strong form on this authority would be resting a comparison on a document that measures one of its two terms. THE REPORT'S OWN METHODOLOGY EXCLUSION CUTS THE SAME WAY AND IS THE SECOND HALF OF THE POINT, VERBATIM: 'this analysis excludes the impact of government incentives or subsidies, SYSTEM BALANCING COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH VARIABLE RENEWABLES and any system-wide cost-savings from the merit order effect. Furthermore, the analysis does not take into account any CO2 pricing'. So the utility-scale LCOE it publishes omits precisely the integration costs a least-cost comparison between central and distributed resources would have to carry. The report says so itself elsewhere: 'Integration costs must be recognised and addressed. While the plant-level solar and wind costs continue to fall, grid constraints are increasingly limiting their deployment.' WHAT IT DOES ESTABLISH, AND IT IS USEFUL, VERBATIM: 'In 2024, new utility-scale onshore wind projects remained the cheapest source of renewable electricity, with a global weighted average LCOE of USD 0.034/per kilowatt hour (kWh), followed by new solar photovoltaic (PV) (USD 0.043/kWh) and new hydropower (USD 0.057/kWh).' And: 'By 2024, the global weighted average LCOE for utility-scale solar PV stabilised at USD 0.043/kWh, making it 41% cheaper than the least-cost fossil fuel-fired alternative', with China at USD 0.033/kWh and India around USD 0.038/kWh. And: 'By 2024, total installed costs (TIC) declined sharply across major renewable technologies. By 2024, TIC fell to USD 691/kW for solar PV, USD 1 041/kW for onshore wind, and USD 2 852/kW for offshore wind.' And: '91% of all newly commissioned utility-scale renewable projects delivered electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil fuel-fired alternative.' NOTE THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL HAS TURNED: 'LCOE increased slightly for some technologies over 2023: solar PV by 0.6%', and the report describes solar and wind prices as having 'begun to stabilise, a natural sign of market maturity'. A chapter written on the assumption that solar costs are still falling steeply should say that the global weighted average rose slightly in 2024. FORWARD PROJECTION ON THE FACE: 'Globally, solar PV is expected to fall below USD 600/kW by 2026', with Asia 'projected at around USD 500/kW'. SYRIA APPEARS ONCE IN 216 PAGES AND ONLY AS A REGIONAL DEFINITION: the Middle East region is defined as 'Bahrain, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen'. NO SYRIAN COST, CAPACITY OR PROJECT DATA APPEARS. So this report cannot be cited for anything about Syrian costs, and the Middle East regional weighted averages it publishes are dominated by Gulf projects at a scale and cost of capital Syria does not have. THAT IS THE THIRD REASON THE LEAST-COST CONCLUSION CANNOT SIMPLY BE IMPORTED. STATUS READ_IN_PART: the executive summary, the solar photovoltaic chapter's LCOE passages, the methodology and scope note, the battery storage chapter's application mix and the regional definitions are read. The wind, hydropower, CSP, geothermal and bioenergy chapters, the full regional tables at 3.1 to 3.3 and the annexes on weighted average cost of capital are not.