Question

A 2MW capacity of wind plant can be built for $1,500 per kW. Operating and maintenance (O&M) cost of this plant is $52,000/MW-year (that’s cost per MW per year of energy).

1 MW/yr = 24*365*MWh/yr Suppose that the plant has a capacity factor of 45%.
- Calculate the cost of building this wind turbine
- Calculate the expected MW produced by this wind plant per year
- Calculate O&M cost per MWh

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the cost of building the wind plant, we can use the given information:

Capacity of the wind plant = 2 MW

Cost per kilowatt (kW) = $1,500

Cost of building the wind plant = Capacity of the wind plant * Cost per kW

Cost of building the wind plant = 2 MW * $1,500/kW

Therefore, the cost of building the wind plant is $3,000,000.

To calculate the expected megawatts (MW) produced by the wind plant per year, we need to consider the capacity factor:

Capacity factor = 45% = 0.45 (decimal)

Expected MW produced per year = Capacity of the wind plant * Capacity factor

Expected MW produced per year = 2 MW * 0.45

Therefore, the wind plant is expected to produce 0.9 MW per year.

To calculate the O&M cost per megawatt-hour (MWh), we need to convert the O&M cost from a per MW-year basis to a per MWh basis.

O&M cost per MW-year = $52,000

1 MW/yr = 24 * 365 MWh/yr (as given)

O&M cost per MWh = O&M cost per MW-year / (1 MW/yr)

O&M cost per MWh = $52,000 / (24 * 365 MWh/yr)

Therefore, the O&M cost per MWh is $0.006 per MWh (rounded to three decimal places).