This report provides a summary of recent market trends influencing technology costs and updated cost estimates for energy system technologies based on these recent trends. There have been significant increases in material and labor prices which can directly and indirectly impact technology costs. This report provides insights on how these market factors are influencing technology costs to support electric system planning. This report also provides cost estimates and market trend insights for key infrastructure technologies such as electric transmission technologies, CO2 pipelines, and natural gas pipelines. Also discussed in this report are various low-carbon energy producing and utilizing technologies to provide insights into long-term decarbonization technology options. These technologies include electrolyzers, steam methane reformation, ammonia production, hydrogen from gasification pathways, and low-carbon fueled generation technologies.
Due to current events, there is high uncertainty in estimating near-term project costs and conflicting insights on how these factors may change over time. Appropriate contingency and planning is necessary to account for these uncertainties. Material and labor price escalation can impact technology cost estimates across the board and while continued technology development could reduce the impact, shipping and supply-chain constraints could still impact near-term project schedules and costs. Infrastructure projects such as transmission and pipelines, have well understood technology costs. Uncertainty is concentrated around the permitting and regulatory processes which can influence costs dramatically. Low-carbon technologies continue to develop and could play a key role in long-term decarbonization of the economy. Continued research and technology development is vital to better understanding these technologies and the roles they could play.