What buyers pay right now
Wind and solar developers usually sell their electricity years in advance, through a power sale contract that fixes the price a buyer will pay for every megawatt hour delivered. A megawatt hour is roughly the electricity it takes to run 330 homes for an hour. An industry price index that tracks signed United States contracts recorded an average of 83.79 dollars per megawatt hour for wind and 61.40 dollars for solar in the second quarter of 2026, a gap of 22.39 dollars, 36% of the solar price, that the trade group behind the index calls the widest it has ever recorded. Wind prices rose 5.5% from the first quarter of 2026 and are up 17.5% over the past year. Solar prices fell 4.8% from the first quarter but still sit 6.7% above where they were a year earlier.
Contract price index published by LevelTen Energy, as reported inside the American Clean Power Association second quarter 2026 Clean Power Quarterly Market Report. The report describes this gap as the widest on record for the index.
Show the numbers
| Wind | 83.79 |
| Solar | 61.40 |
Why wind is pulling away
The American Clean Power Association, the trade group behind the index, counts at least 44 gigawatts of wind projects stuck in a Department of Defense review. A gigawatt is enough generating capacity to power roughly 750,000 homes at once. The association counts the national pipeline of wind projects still working toward construction as down 4% from the previous quarter, even as its combined pipeline of wind, solar and battery projects grew to a record 205 gigawatts, up 11% over the year. Fewer wind projects competing to get built lets the ones still available charge more.
As that volume of viable wind projects decreases over time, obviously they can command a premium in the marketplace.
John Hensley, senior vice president of markets and policy analysis at the American Clean Power Association. Source 4.
A federal court in Oregon has issued a preliminary injunction, a court order pausing part of the review, and the association says it is waiting to see whether the Department of Defense resumes processing wind projects.
Building one costs about the same
None of that gap shows up in what it costs to build a plant. Lazard, a financial advisory firm that models construction costs every year, puts the unsubsidized levelized cost of energy for a new onshore wind project, a modeled estimate that spreads every dollar spent building and running a plant across all the electricity it will ever produce, at 37 to 99 dollars per megawatt hour, against 40 to 98 dollars for utility scale solar. Under the financing assumptions Lazard treats as central, the average works out to 68 dollars for wind and 69 dollars for solar, almost a tie. Both have climbed since 2021, wind up 70% and solar up 85%, which Lazard attributes to higher interest rates, tariffs on imported equipment and rising costs to connect new projects to the grid.
Wind energy prices, particularly in the central United States, remain attractive even as they have drifted higher in recent years.
Ryan Wiser, senior scientist in the Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Source 3.
The federal government separately projects that a wind or solar plant entering service in 2031 would cost 56.75 dollars for wind and 58.33 dollars for solar, after applying whatever federal tax credit, a reduction in the taxes a project owes, remains under a 2025 law that is gradually cutting it, a different question from what a contract costs today.
Lazard levelized cost of energy estimate for a new United States project built today, before any tax credit. Using the financing assumptions Lazard treats as central, the average is 68 dollars for wind and 69 dollars for solar, almost a tie.
Show the numbers
| Wind | 37 to 99 dollars per megawatt hour |
| Solar | 40 to 98 dollars per megawatt hour |