Economic, Social and Environmental Assessment of Electricity Generation from Renewable and Gas Technologies

Growing demand for electricity and the reduction of fossil fuels have made it essential to consider alternative and renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, to generate electricity. In this paper, by computing levelized output energy cost and levelized cost of electricity, the prices of electricity generated from the different combined cycle, wind, and photovoltaic power plants are compared. Moreover, data envelopment analysis method is used to evaluate and compare power generation technologies. The results showed that the total cost of electricity generated from fossil fuels is higher than what generated from renewable power plants and that renewable technologies have the highest compliance with sustainability criteria.