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Offshore wind is usually more expensive than utility-scale solar and overlaps the cost of new natural-gas combined-cycle generation. Lazard’s 2025 U.S. unsubsidized new-build benchmark puts offshore wind at $70–$157 per megawatt-hour (MWh), compared with $38–$78/MWh for utility solar PV and $48–$109/MWh for gas combined cycle. Those are modeled lifetime generation costs, not the price on a household electricity bill. The result can change with financing, fuel prices, project location, transmission, and the value assigned to reliable capacity.
The latest apples-to-apples cost ranges
Lazard’s 2025 Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) comparison uses unsubsidized costs for new U.S. projects. The ranges below are lifetime averages that combine construction, financing, operations, maintenance and, for gas, fuel.
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| Technology | Lazard 2025 unsubsidized LCOE | Approximate cost per kilowatt-hour | What the range represents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore wind | $70–$157/MWh | 7.0–15.7¢/kWh | New U.S. offshore wind projects; marine construction, export cables, substations and specialized vessels are included in the modeled cost. |
| Utility-scale solar PV | $38–$78/MWh | 3.8–7.8¢/kWh | New U.S. utility solar plants; the range reflects differences in solar resource, capital cost, financing and project conditions. |
| Gas combined cycle | $48–$109/MWh | 4.8–10.9¢/kWh | New U.S. combined-cycle gas plants, using Lazard’s $3.45 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) fuel assumption for the year-over-year comparison. |
On this benchmark, offshore wind’s low end is below the high end of gas, so the two technologies overlap. Offshore wind’s high end is substantially above both the gas range and the solar range. Utility solar has the lowest range of the three, although its output follows daylight rather than demand.
What levelized cost of electricity actually measures
The U.S. Energy Information Administration defines LCOE as the revenue required to build and operate a generator over a specified cost-recovery period. In practice, analysts spread a project’s capital spending, financing costs, operating and maintenance expenses, fuel (when applicable), and expected lifetime electricity production into one average figure.
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LCOE is useful because it puts technologies in common units. It is not a wholesale market bid, a retail tariff, or a guarantee of what a project will earn. A wind farm and a gas plant with identical LCOE can have very different production patterns, ramping ability, transmission needs and exposure to market prices. LCOE also does not automatically include every tax credit, transmission upgrade, storage requirement, balancing cost, curtailment loss, capacity value, reliability benefit or carbon externality.
Why offshore wind costs more to build
Marine foundations and installation
Every offshore turbine needs a foundation suited to local water depth and seabed conditions. Installing foundations, towers and turbines requires specialized vessels, port staging and weather windows. Rough seas can delay work and increase vessel and labor costs in ways that have no direct equivalent on a typical land-based solar site.
Subsea cables and offshore substations
Electricity must travel through inter-array cables to an offshore substation and then through an export cable to shore. Those cables, their protection from anchors and fishing gear, and the shore connection add balance-of-plant cost before the electricity reaches the onshore grid.
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Technicians need boats, helicopters or service vessels to reach turbines, and work is constrained by waves and wind. A fault that would be a short road trip at a land-based plant can require a coordinated marine campaign offshore. The LCOE range reflects the higher expected operating and maintenance burden.
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Early-stage market conditions
Lazard reported that early-stage market quotes were pushing high-case combined-cycle gas-turbine capital costs upward, but offshore wind also faces inflation, supply-chain constraints, vessel availability and permitting risk. Its published ranges are a snapshot of real-world U.S. project data, not a forecast of where costs must go.
How natural gas compares
Gas overlaps offshore wind on new-build LCOE
At $48–$109/MWh, a new combined-cycle gas plant can be cheaper than many offshore projects, but the ranges overlap between $70 and $109/MWh. A low-cost offshore project can therefore match or beat a high-cost gas project under the stated assumptions. The reverse is also true: the upper offshore range is far above the upper gas range.
Fuel prices and utilization can move gas costs
Gas LCOE includes fuel, so the result changes when gas prices change. Lazard used $3.45/MMBtu for its comparison. A plant that runs often spreads fixed costs over more megawatt-hours, while a lightly used plant has fewer units of output over which to recover its capital. Turbine availability, construction costs, local permitting and any carbon rule also affect the result.
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Combined-cycle units can generally be scheduled and ramped to meet demand when fuel and equipment are available. That operating flexibility has value that a single LCOE number does not capture. Comparing an existing gas station’s short-run fuel and maintenance cost with the full cost of a new offshore wind farm is also misleading: the existing plant’s original capital is already sunk.
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How solar compares
Solar has the lowest Lazard range
Utility-scale solar’s $38–$78/MWh range is below offshore wind’s $70–$157/MWh range throughout the overlapping U.S. benchmark. Solar has no fuel expense and relatively simple access for construction and maintenance. A mature manufacturing and installation supply chain also helps keep capital and operating costs low.
Solar’s production profile changes the comparison
Solar output varies with daylight, season, clouds and the angle of the sun. A project may produce inexpensive energy at midday while producing little or nothing during an evening peak. Transmission, storage, reserves, balancing and curtailment can therefore add system costs that are not represented by the plant-only LCOE range.
Offshore wind can complement solar
Offshore wind often produces during different hours and seasons than solar, and strong coastal wind can coincide with periods of high demand. That complementarity can reduce the amount of storage or backup needed in a portfolio, but its value depends on the local wind profile, transmission network and market rules. It cannot be inferred from LCOE alone.
Converting the figures to cents per kilowatt-hour
Electricity bills are usually expressed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), while project studies use MWh. Divide a dollar-per-MWh figure by 10 to obtain cents per kWh:
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- Offshore wind: $70–$157/MWh becomes approximately 7.0–15.7¢/kWh.
- Utility-scale solar PV: $38–$78/MWh becomes approximately 3.8–7.8¢/kWh.
- Gas combined cycle: $48–$109/MWh becomes approximately 4.8–10.9¢/kWh.
For example, $100/MWh equals 10¢/kWh, not $1/kWh. These conversions still describe modeled generation cost; they do not include a utility’s retail delivery charges, taxes or other bill components.
Financing assumptions can change the ranking
Lazard’s standard chart assumes 60% debt at 8% interest and 40% equity at a 12% cost unless otherwise indicated. Offshore wind and solar require most of their spending before the first megawatt-hour is sold, so their LCOE is especially sensitive to the discount rate and debt terms. A higher cost of capital raises the annualized burden of construction spending. Gas has substantial upfront capital too, but a larger share of its lifetime cost is operating fuel, so financing changes can affect the technologies by different amounts.
Do not compare a subsidized number with an unsubsidized one. The Lazard figures are explicitly unsubsidized new-build estimates. A tax credit, grant, contract-for-difference or other policy support can lower a developer’s net cost or required revenue, but the policy and its eligibility must be identified before using the number in a comparison.
Location and project design matter as much as the technology label
There is no single worldwide offshore-wind price. Water depth and seabed geology determine foundation design; wind speed and turbulence determine annual output; distance to shore determines cable length; and port, vessel and labor availability affect installation cost. Interconnection queues, permitting schedules, local taxes, inflation and interest rates can move a project toward either end of a published range.
The same principle applies to the alternatives. A high-sun location with an existing transmission line can produce solar near the bottom of its range. A gas plant close to a pipeline and transmission node can avoid costly network work, while a remote plant may need new infrastructure. Any serious comparison should state the region, project size, resource quality, grid connection and financial assumptions.
Other published figures and why they are not interchangeable
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind example
Lazard lists an illustrative midpoint of about $92/MWh for Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. As of February 2025, Lazard reported a projected LCOE of $91/MWh in 2027 dollars, with commercial operation expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. This is a project-specific projection, not a national offshore-wind average; the dollar year and expected operating date matter when comparing it with other figures.
IRENA’s global weighted averages
The International Renewable Energy Agency’s 2026 publication, reporting 2025 data, gives global weighted-average LCOEs of $78/MWh for offshore wind and $44/MWh for solar PV. Those are worldwide averages across projects and markets, not U.S.-only estimates. They incorporate a different mix of financing, supply chains, resource quality, currencies and project vintages than Lazard’s U.S. ranges.
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An International Energy Agency calculator example lists $111.78/MWh for a 600-MW U.S. offshore-wind project and $44.25/MWh for a 100-MW U.S. utility-scale solar project. These are entries produced under the calculator’s specific assumptions, so they should not be treated as universal prices or as a replacement for a project’s own engineering and finance model.
What LCOE leaves out of a system decision
- Transmission: Offshore projects may need long export cables and onshore reinforcements; solar and gas projects may also face interconnection upgrades.
- Capacity adequacy: A generator’s contribution during peak demand is not the same as its annual energy output. Wind and solar capacity credit depends on local weather and the load profile.
- Balancing and storage: Variable generation can require reserves, demand response, batteries, pumped storage or other flexibility. The amount depends on how much variable generation is already on the grid.
- Curtailment: Energy may be available when the network cannot accept it. Curtailment lowers delivered output and can raise the effective cost per usable MWh.
- Fuel and carbon exposure: Gas costs respond to fuel markets and potentially carbon rules. Wind and solar have no fuel-price risk during operation, although manufacturing and construction have their own supply-chain exposures.
- Reliability and resilience: Storm design, outage rates, spare parts, weather diversity and geographic dispersion affect dependable service but are not summarized by a single LCOE.
A practical way to compare a proposed project
- Put every estimate in the same units and dollar year. Convert MWh to kWh only for communication, and inflation-adjust figures before ranking them.
- Confirm the technology definition. Distinguish offshore from onshore wind, utility solar from rooftop solar, and combined-cycle gas from simple-cycle peakers.
- Check subsidy treatment. Label each figure as unsubsidized, tax-credit-adjusted or otherwise supported.
- Match project conditions. Record wind or solar resource, water depth, distance to shore, plant size, expected capacity factor and interconnection scope.
- Test financing and fuel sensitivities. Recalculate with plausible interest rates, debt-equity mixes and gas prices instead of relying on one point estimate.
- Add system costs and values. Include transmission, storage, balancing, curtailment, capacity contribution, emissions policy and reliability requirements.
- Separate new-build and existing-plant questions. Use marginal operating cost when deciding whether an already-built plant should run; use LCOE or an equivalent full-life metric when choosing what to build next.
The headline comparison is therefore clear but conditional: in Lazard’s 2025 U.S. unsubsidized new-build snapshot, utility solar is generally cheapest, offshore wind is generally more expensive and overlaps new gas, and gas remains sensitive to fuel and utilization. A decision for a specific grid requires the project’s location, financing, operating profile and full system effects rather than a single national range.
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