FÖS: Gas-Powered Electricity Costs Two to Three Times More Than Renewable Backup Solutions

Electricity produced by gas-fired power plants with a capacity of 500 MW operating 1,000 hours per year—a realistic assumption for backup mode operation—displays a levelized cost of €0.192/kWh, of which €0.068/kWh accounts for the gas component alone. Adding the carbon price within the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), set at €100 per metric ton of CO₂, raises this cost to €0.23/kWh. When externalized costs—those not borne by the operator—are integrated, the range rises to €0.35–0.67/kWh. This is what reveals a study published by the Forum for a Sustainable Market Economy (FÖS), an energy think tank based in Berlin, at the request of Green Planet Energy.