LCOE is a cost measure that informs us that wind and solar are less expensive than conventional energy sources like coal, oil, and gas plants. Ergo, we should all go gaga for wind and solar and put them on top of our hats and sticking out of our ears.
You don’t need to understand how they come up with the cockamamie LCOE numbers you just need to understand this:
Imagine the levelized cost of transportation. Here you have some choices: (I just guessed at the approximate costs for comparison purposes.)
Scooter $0.05/mile
Bicycle $0.06/mile
Electric bicycle $0.085/mile
Golf cart $0.17/mile
Automobile $0.55/mile
Pickup truck $0.77/mile
Semi tractor trailer $2.55/mile
Let’s say you need to transport four people and 200 pounds of luggage over a thousand miles. If you were just considering the LCOT (levelized cost of transportation), you would pick the scooter, because it is the lowest cost. But you are setting yourself up for failure, because the scooter cannot transport the required payload for the required distance.
An automobile can transport four people with 200 pounds of luggage over 1000 miles in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost.
The semi tractor trailer is too big, but the forms of transportation are incapable of meeting the requirements, so it doesn’t matter that their levelized cost is less.
This is the same as the levelized cost of energy. It doesn’t matter that the levelized cost of solar and wind may be less than coal, oil, and gas. assuming that the people calculating the LCOE aren’t just out and out liars.
Solar and wind can’t supply demand when called upon! It doesn’t matter that they allegedly cost less (and you never hear about all the subsidies, mandates, and grifting of solar and wind to make the LCOE less).
They simply cannot provide power on demand, which is required for modern civilization. So epic fail on their part. LCOE is BS in the service climate change.