Wind and solar generators took the greatest leap in new installed capacity and construction investment, while natural gas-fired generation proved to offer the most bang for the buck per project, according to the most recent data available on generator costs released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
New wind and solar installations accounted for nearly 9,000 and 8,000 MW of capacity two years ago, respectively, while natural gas was close behind at more than 7,900 MW. The EIA used complete data from 2016 installations and will release 2017 generator cost data next year.
