Other Technologies (EIA)

Base Year and future cost and performance data (see above) are sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Annual Energy Outlook 2025 (AEO2025) projections (EIA, 2025a). The Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) does not assess any scenarios of cost and performance advances in these technologies beyond what is captured in the AEO2025 Reference scenario. Specifically, this means that scenarios including expanded cost drivers are not considered for biopower as this is beyond the AEO2025 Reference. For all the technology types covered here, this page notes default procedures and assumptions, and the Notes and Adjustments table below notes exceptions to these defaults. Because the project team does not develop these projections, we include only a moderate cost projection. Therefore, the data represented in the conservative, moderate, and advanced scenario selections above are the same.

Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)

Base Year and future capital costs are from Table 55 of the AEO2025 Reference scenario (EIA, 2025a) and are adjusted to remove the material price index. Because the Base Year in the ATB begins before the projections in the Annual Energy Outlook, the Base Year value is backward-extrapolated from the Annual Energy Outlook projections.

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Costs

Operations and maintenance (O&M) costs are from Table 3 of the AEO2025 assumptions report (EIA, 2025b) and are assumed to be constant over time. Because the EIA fixed O&M costs for new power plants do not include property tax or insurance costs as part of their reported costs, we increase the fixed O&M by 20%, which is approximately consistent with the internal property tax and insurance accounting that occurs within EIA's capacity expansion model.

Capacity Factor

The average capacity factor is the approximate fleetwide capacity factor for biopower plants as reported by EIA.

Other Default Assumptions

Heat rates: Heat rates are from Table 3 of the AEO2025 assumptions report (EIA, 2025b) and are assumed to be constant over time.
Fuel prices: Fuel prices are taken from the 2016 Billion Ton Report (DOE, 2016).
Financing: Default financial assumptions are used.

Notes and Adjustments

Technology	Subtechnology	Notes and Adjustments
Biopower	Dedicated biopower plant	Fuel costs are representative costs of woody biomass taken from the 2016 Billion Ton Report (DOE, 2016). Regional variations will likely ultimately impact biomass feedstock costs, but these are not included in the 2025 ATB. Assumes a plant size of 50 megawatts.
Biopower	Carbon capture and storage	Fuel costs are representative costs of woody biomass taken from the 2016 Billion Ton Report (DOE, 2016). Regional variations will likely ultimately impact biomass feedstock costs, but these are not included in the 2025 ATB. Assumes a plant size of 50 megawatts. Assumes 95% capture rate.

References

The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.

DOE. “2016 Billion-Ton Report.” Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2016. http://energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/2016-billion-ton-report.

EIA. “Annual Energy Outlook 2025.” Washington, D.C.: Energy Information Administration, 2025a. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/.

EIA. “Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook 2025: Electricity Market Module.” Washington, DC: Energy Information Administration, April 2025b. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/assumptions/pdf/EMM_Assumptions.pdf.