Program and policy analysis plus financial and microeconomic aspects of renewable electric and competing technologies is crucial to making informed decisions about what technology provides the best value. These tools and Web sites help determine "the bottom line" for financing renewable energy or energy efficiency projects.

Cost Curves
The cost of energy (COE) from renewable technologies has steadily declined in the past quarter century. As an example, the cost of wind energy has declined from about 30-45 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1980 to less than 5 cents today. Wind, PV, geothermal, solar thermal, and biomass have all seen significant drops in cost with the improvements in technology. This PowerPoint slide shows these historical trends and includes projections through 2020. These represent levelized cents/kWh in constant $2000. (PowerPoint 210 KB)

REASN
The Renewable Energy Analysis Studies Network (REASN) is your place to find traditional analyst reports, models, and data on renewable energy. REASN also features interactive features such as discussion groups and chats about current events in energy analysis. Visit the REASN Web site.

Real Options
In rapidly changing markets, business managers like to keep their options open. Real Options Analysis enables executives to do just that: analyze and invest in Real Asset Options in the same way that financial managers evaluate and purchase stock options. Visit the Real Options Web site.

RETFinance
RETFinance is a levelized cost-of-energy model which simulates a detailed 20-year nominal dollar cash flow for renewable energy projects power projects including project earnings, cash flows, and debt payment to calculate a project's levelized cost-of-electricity, after-tax nominal Internal Rate of Return, and annual Debt-Service-Coverage-Ratios.