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Consider a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant with a thermal efficiency of 50%. The capital cost is $1000/kW. It is financed with 60% equity at a rate of 12% and 40% debt at a rate of 6% over a time horizon of 20 years. Add 4% of the capital cost per year to account for the other fixed costs. Natural gas costs $8.2/MMBtu ($2 per 1,000,000 Btu) now, and the variable O&M adds another $0.01/kWh now, both of which are projected to rise at 2% per year in the future. The owners have a 10% di

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A power plant produces 1 GW of electricity, at an efficiency of 40 % (typical of today's coal-fired plants). (a) At what rate does this plant expel waste heat into its environment? (b) Assume first that the cold reservoir for this plant is a river whose flow rate is 100 m^3 / s. By how much will the temperature of the river increase? (c) To avoid this "thermal pollution" of the river, the plant could instead be cooled by evaporation of river water. (This is more expensive, but in some areas it i