Our World
in Data
Data

The cost of 66 different technologies over time

this data

The cost of 66 different technologies over time
Expressed in different units that have been chosen for visualization purposes.
Source
Farmer and Lafond (2016) – with minor processing by
Last updated
December 12, 2023
Date range
1929–2013
Unit
various units

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Retrieved on
December 12, 2023
Retrieved from
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by . To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
How predictable is technological progress? J. D. Farmer & F. Lafond, Research Policy Volume 45, Issue 3, April 2016, Pages 647-665.
The data are mostly taken from the . The database has been constructed from personal communications and from , , , , , , , , , . The data on photovoltaic prices has been collected from public releases of Strategies Unlimited, Navigant and SPV Market Research. The data on nuclear energy is from  and . The DNA sequencing data is from  (cost per human-size genome), and for each year the last available month (September for 2001-2002 and October afterwards) was taken and corrected for inflation using the US GDP deflator.

How we process data at

All data and visualizations on rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across .

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by are completely open access under the . You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by , please use the following citation:

“Data Page: The cost of 66 different technologies over time”.  (2025). Data adapted from Farmer and Lafond. Retrieved from /grapher/costs-of-66-different-technologies-over-time [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Farmer and Lafond (2016) – with minor processing by

Full citation

Farmer and Lafond (2016) – with minor processing by . “The cost of 66 different technologies over time” [dataset]. Farmer and Lafond, “How predictable is technological progress?” [original data]. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from /grapher/costs-of-66-different-technologies-over-time