The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for coal-fired electricity is about $0.09/kWh. Suppose the capital cost of the plant is $600 million and it operates for 40 years with a capacity factor of 95%. What is the contribution of CAPEX to LCOE? Given the difference you (hopefully) find, what contributes the remaining costs?

The demand for electric power is usually much higher during the day than it is at night, and utility companies often sell power at night at much lower prices to encourage consumers to use the available power generation capacity and to avoid building new expensive power plants that will be used only a short time during peak periods. Utilities are also willing to purchase power produced during the day from private parties at a high price. Suppose a utility company is selling electric power for $0.06/kWh at night and is willing to pay $0.13/kWh for power produced during the day. To take advantage of this opportunity, an entrepreneur is considering building a large reservoir 50 m above the lake level, pumping water from the lake to the reservoir at night using cheap power, and letting the water flow from the reservoir back to the lake during the day, producing power as the pump–motor operates as a turbine–generator during reverse flow. Preliminary analysis shows that a water flow rate of 2…

2. Consider the system described in the news: at night, when there is energy left, water is pumped from a large lake to a reservoir at 80 m above the lake level. During the day, this water is used to generate energy in a turbine located 80 m below the elevated reservoir. Considering that the water flow is always 5000 liters/s (both at the inlet of the reservoir and at the outlet) and that the pump and turbine efficiencies are 70%, what is the power (in kW) required by the pump and the power (in kW) recovered in the turbine. Data: The pipe diameter is always the same along the system (d = 0.5 m); g = 10 m/s2; γ = 9810 N/m3. Matter transport phenomena; Please make it typeable as handwriting interferes with understanding