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The costs to run and maintain a new power plant in the United States vary greatly by the type of technology deployed. A geothermal power plant commissioned in 2024 and with the earliest possible year of operation being 2029 could be expected to have fixed costs around 163 U.S. dollars per kilowatt installed per year. The U.S. already operates 61 geothermal power plants, the majority of which are located in California and Nevada.
Costs depend on multiple factors, such as raw materials used, location, access to infrastructure (like grid interconnection, fuel supply, and transportation), and labor requirements.

U.S. power plant costs explained

Fixed costs of power plants are generally composed of capital and land costs, which include labor as well as costs associated with obtaining approvals and permits. Nuclear energy has the highest estimated capital costs in the U.S.
Variable operating costs depend on the amount of energy produced by the plant. For fossil fuel plants, fuel costs make up most of the operating costs. In contrast, renewables tend to have no fuel costs, except for biomass and waste plants. Labor and maintenance costs tend to make up the bulk of operational costs for these plants. Nevertheless, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are largely self-run and have no significant variable costs.

Levelized cost of energy generation

Plant costs also depend on the level of subsidies received. For example, unsubsidized energy generation levelized costs in the U.S. were the highest for rooftop residential solar fittings. Due to their relatively small-scale deployment and dependency on sunny weather, rooftop solar installations need a comparatively long time to break even.