LevelTen Q1 2019 PPA Price Index Reveals Increased Competition and Cost Reductions as Key Drivers in Decreasing PPA Prices

May 8, 2019

Every quarter, LevelTen Energy provides an in-depth look at power purchase agreement (PPA) offer price averages submitted through the LevelTen Marketplace, for both wind and solar projects, in five independent system operator (ISO) regions, including CAISO, ERCOT, MISO, PJM and SPP, in the United States. The following are a handful of key takeaways from Q1 2019:

Across markets, an evenly-weighted index of P25 wind and solar prices decreased $0.39/MWh, or 2.3% quarter-over-quarter.
Solar prices decreased in all markets except MISO, with the largest decreases coming from CAISO, PJM and ERCOT, and only moderate decreases in SPP.
Overall wind prices also decreased, but not as significantly as solar prices. ERCOT and SPP saw material decreases in their prices, while CAISO, MISO and PJM saw slight increases.

This quarter, in addition to reporting on how much prices have changed, we also examined why they changed. We conducted a survey of 40 utility-scale renewable energy project developers to find out which market factors impacted their offer prices the most in Q1. The results revealed that increased competition among developers and changes in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) costs had the greatest impact.

In the developer survey, we also explored whether or not changes to federal renewable energy tax credits would affect future renewable energy project development.

Download the Q1 2019 PPA Price Index

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LevelTen Energy is the leading provider of transaction infrastructure for the clean energy transition, connecting buyers, sellers, and financiers through an international marketplace powered by trusted data and automation. The LevelTen Marketplace supports power purchase agreements (PPAs), energy attribute credits (EACs), capacity, hybrid PPAs, granular certificate trading, and storage, so organizations can execute and manage clean energy transactions with confidence. With a network of more than 1,300 project developers in 35 countries, LevelTen is advancing carbon-free energy markets by making them more transparent, liquid, and accessible.