Question

HELP PLS SHOW WORK

West Fremont is a community consisting of 3,000 homes. A small coal-burning power plant currently supplies electricity for the town. The capacity of the power plant is 12 megawatts (MW) and the average household consumes 8,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electrical energy each year. The price paid to the electric utility by West Fremont residents for the energy is $0. 10 per kWh. The town leaders are considering a plan, the West Fremont Wind Project (WFWP), to generate their own electricity using 10 wind turbines that would be located on the wooded ridges surrounding the town. Each wind turbine would have a capacity of 1.2 MW and each would cost the town $3 million to purchase, finance, and operate for 25 years.

(a) Assuming that the existing power plant can operate at full capacity for 8,000 hrs/yr, how many kWh of electricity can be produced by the plant in a year?

(b) At the current rate of electricity energy per household, how many kWh of energy does the community consume in one year?

Answer 1

(a) To calculate the total electricity produced by the power plant in a year, we can use the following formula:

Total electricity produced = Power plant capacity x Hours of operation per year

Total electricity produced = 12 MW x 8,000 hrs/yr

Total electricity produced = 96,000 MWh

Therefore, the power plant can produce 96,000 MWh of electricity in a year.

(b) To calculate the total energy consumed by the community in a year, we can multiply the average energy consumed per household by the total number of households:

Total energy consumed = Average energy consumption per household x Number of households

Total energy consumed = 8,000 kWh/yr x 3,000

Total energy consumed = 24,000,000 kWh/yr

Therefore, the community consumes 24,000,000 kWh of energy in a year.