# NREL ATB Electricity Cost Benchmarks

> NREL ATB Electricity Cost Benchmarks is a paid API for AI agents from api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-29).

Returns NREL Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) electricity cost projections (LCOE, CAPEX, O&M, capacity factor, etc.) per technology, scenario, and year out to 2050–2060

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev/api/energy/nrel-atb-cost-benchmarks?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-29
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/nrel-atb-electricity-cost-benchmarks-e48527c4
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_mO8GEmNAalf_X48X6CoOR

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability nrel-atb-electricity-cost-benchmarks-e48527c4
```

Example prompt: What does NREL's ATB project for the LCOE of utility-scale solar (UtilityPV) in 2035 under the Moderate scenario, using a 30-year cost recovery period and the Exp financial case?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need official NREL ATB cost benchmarks for US electricity generation technologies — especially for energy project finance modeling, policy analysis, or competitive technology comparisons through 2050. Prefer this over general web search when you need structured, versioned, scenario-specific data (LCOE, CAPEX, O&M) with consistent methodology across technologies and years, sourced directly from the NREL OEDI data lake.

## Known failure modes

- Unknown technology name returns an error or empty result — use exact ATB technology identifiers like 'UtilityPV' or 'LandbasedWind'
- Invalid scenario name (must be Moderate, Advanced, or Conservative) returns an error
- Requested year outside the ATB projection range returns no rows
- Invalid metric name returns an error — must match ATB metric names exactly (e.g. 'LCOE', 'CAPEX', 'Fixed O&M')
- Tax credit case not available for all technologies — check availableCases in response
- Financial case mismatch between ATB release year (Exp vs Market naming) may return unexpected defaults

## How this service works

NREL Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) electricity cost projections from the official open-data release on the OEDI data lake (latest release found automatically): LCOE ($/MWh), CAPEX, overnight capital cost, fixed/variable O&M, capacity factor and more, per technology and resource class, yearly to 2050-2060, for a scenario, financial case, tax-credit setting and cost-recovery period. US-focused, real-dollar values as published by NREL.

## Output

A JSON object containing one or more rows of ATB cost data, each with the technology name, resource class, projection year, metric name, value, and units (e.g. $/MWh). Also includes metadata: ATB release version, scenario, financial case, tax credit flag, cost recovery period, data source URL, and available financial cases for the technology.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "technology"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "case": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Financial case as published (ATB 2025: Exp or R&D; older: Market or R&D). Default: Exp, else Market"
      },
      "year": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Single projection year (e.g. 2030). Omit for the full yearly series"
      },
      "metric": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "One of LCOE, CAPEX, OCC, Fixed O&M, Variable O&M, CF, Fuel, Heat Rate, FCR, WACC Real (default LCOE)"
      },
      "crpYears": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Cost recovery period in years, 20 or 30 (default 30)"
      },
      "scenario": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Moderate (default), Advanced or Conservative"
      },
      "allClasses": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "true to return every resource class, default only NREL's representative (default) class"
      },
      "taxCredits": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "true to use the tax-credit case (ITC/PTC), default false"
      },
      "technology": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "ATB technology, e.g. UtilityPV, LandbasedWind, OffShoreWind, NaturalGas_FE, Nuclear, Geothermal, Utility-Scale Battery Storage, CommPV, ResPV, Hydropower, CSP, Biopower, Coal_FE"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "note": "Values as published by NREL ATB (real dollars of the release's base year).",
  "rows": [
   {
    "name": "Utility PV - Class 5",
    "year": 2030,
    "units": "$/MWh",
    "value": 36.1095,
    "techDetail": "Class5",
    "taxCreditCase": null,
    "representative": true
   }
  ],
  "count": 1,
  "metric": "LCOE",
  "source": "https://oedi-data-lake.s3.amazonaws.com/ATB/electricity/parquet/2025/v1.0.0/ATBe.parquet",
  "crpYears": 30,
  "scenario": "Moderate",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-23T09:38:32.007Z",
  "atbRelease": "2025 v1.0.0",
  "taxCredits": false,
  "technology": "UtilityPV",
  "financialCase": "Exp",
  "availableCases": [
   "R&D",
   "R&D + TC"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

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