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14 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid flat, while for nuclear power it is increasing. The LCOE for nuclear generation has climbed around 35% compared to previous estimates. The reason is the increased capital costs at various nuclear facilities in development. In 2017 new nuclear capacity of 3.3 GW was outweighed by lost capacity of 4.6 GW (Green, 2018). It should be emphasised that the conclusions consider the global average. The actual cost will vary significantly from country to country depending on the cost of coal, gas, the cost of capital and the nature of the wind and solar resources. Lazard (2017) emphasises the dramatic fall in the cost of large- scale solar PV from an average cost of 359 USD/MWh in 2009 to 50 USD/MWh in 2017, an 86% decline. This is half the cost of coal generation (102 USD/MWh). The cost of solar PV is far cheaper in some solar-rich countries. Contracts have been written at around 21 USD/MWh in Chile and 30 USD/MWh in Abu Dhabi (IEA,  2017a). In the same period the global average LCOE for wind energy has fallen from 135 USD/MWh to 45 USD/MWh, a drop of 67%. On a global scale wind energy is today the cheapest electric energy. The global average LCOE (November 2017) for the most common energy sources is displayed in Figure 1.2. 45 50 60 102 148 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Wind Solar PV Gas–combined cycle Coal Nuclear Figure 1.2 Global average of LCOE (USD/MWh) values in late 2017. Data source: Lazard (2017). Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user