Deep Dive: The Economics of MetroVolt
The full LCOE ladder — FOAK $84–92 to fleet $48–56/MWh — the required PPA, the cost floor, and why Kronos declines the sub-$40 figures others quote.
- FOAK LCOE
- $84–92/MWh
- NOAK / fleet
- $48–84 → $48–56/MWh
- Required PPA
- $56–92/MWh
- Floor
- $18–30/MWh (sub-$40 not claimed)
Kronos publishes its economics as a transparent ladder with stated assumptions, not a single headline. The LCOE falls as cumulative units are built:
| Stage | LCOE |
|---|---|
| First-of-a-kind (FOAK) | $84–92/MWh |
| Nth-of-a-kind (NOAK) | $48–84/MWh |
| Fleet scale | $48–56/MWh |
| Required PPA | $56–92/MWh |
| Physical floor | $18–30/MWh |
The decline follows Wright's law, reinforced by the structural availability advantage of being low-neutron (no blanket changeouts, a first wall lasting 30 full-power-years — avoiding a 33–42% D–T availability penalty). Notably, Kronos declines the sub-$40/MWh figures common in fusion marketing, treating them as unreachable for this architecture. The honest comparison is against the NOAK $48–84/MWh band and other firm options. As §4.10 of the design series states, the ladder is ceiling-conditioned — its per-kilowatt basis prices the gated hot-ion ceiling output; at the 486 MWe Mode-D operating point the same capital prices ≈1.8–2.5× higher per kilowatt until the ceiling is earned, which is why the physics gates are also the commercial gates.