Comparing

the costs

Solar plant costs are down: lower costs and stable fuel pricing helps keep our electricity bills affordable.

Solar and battery storage cost less than half of what coal costs to build and operate, and about 30% less than a natural gas plant.

With no fuel to buy, since sunshine is free, renewables like solar keep energy prices steady, avoiding the spikes that oil and gas markets see from weather, geopolitical events, and global markets.

National Price Range for New Electrical Generation

LCOE ranges: Lazard LCOE+ v19.0, July 13, 2026. Generation shares: EIA series stored for 2025. https://ratewatt.com/guides/renewable-vs-fossil-fuel-costs

Did You Know?

  • Solar keeps getting cheaper for a simple reason: manufacturing scale. Solar panels are manufactured goods, and their cost drops predictably as production scales up — each doubling of cumulative installed capacity has cut panel costs by about 20%, a pattern known as Swanson’s Law.

Learn More

San Juan Citizens Alliance created this website as an educational hub — a place to understand the region’s shift away from coal and gas, grounded in real data on jobs, health, water, and climate. We track this the Four Corners Clean Energy Transition closely and work to make sure it happens fairly, transparently, and in the community’s interest. Our goal is simple: the more people understand what this transition means for their community, the stronger public support and engagement will be in making it just and equitable for everyone who calls the Four Corners home.

Thank you to EcoFlight and Benjamin Hunter for their aerial images, and to Creative Geckos for other photos and design.

To learn more about the Four Corners Clean Energy Transition, what San Juan Citizens is doing, and how you can get more involved, contact us at info@sanjuancitizens.org.