In most OECD member-country electricity markets, the levelized cost of energy for new utility-scale solar photovoltaic power and new onshore wind power is lower than the levelized cost of energy for new natural-gas combined-cycle power plants.
NOT BSTOTAL BS
HARDLY BS — Verdict: Mostly True
Verified by Lenz ·
The Short Version
Available high-quality evidence supports the claim’s broad direction: new onshore wind, and often utility-scale solar, usually have lower project-level LCOE than new gas combined-cycle plants across much of the OECD. OECD cross-country data, plus recent U.S. and European studies, point the same way. The main limitation is incomplete OECD-wide coverage, and solar’s advantage depends more on local sunlight and gas-price conditions.
Caveats
Direct cross-country OECD evidence does not cover all OECD members, so the phrase "most OECD member-country markets" is somewhat broader than the strongest dataset directly proves.
The comparison is about project-level LCOE only; it does not include grid integration, balancing, or other system costs that can change whole-system comparisons.
Solar PV is not uniformly cheaper in every OECD market; local resource quality, financing assumptions, and gas prices can produce exceptions.