Cost Benefit Analysis of a Utility Scale Waste-to-Energy/Concentrating Solar Power Hybrid Facility at Fort Bliss

Abstract

The Cost Benefit Analysis of a Waste to Energy (WtE)/Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Hybrid Facility located on Fort Bliss is a comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits of a WtE/CSP facility to the Army. Since no capital or operating costs are required from the Army, the increased cost of electricity becomes the overarching cost. This thesis attempts to monetize the benefits of energy security, environmental impact, meeting legislative mandates, and meeting Net Zero Energy goals. Both Congressional legislation and Executive orders dictate the increased consumption and production of renewable energy by federal agencies. WtE/CSP presents a strategy toward achieving these mandates, and Fort Bliss is well located to capitalize on this strategy. This thesis estimates those costs and benefits based on available data. Those estimates are discounted for time and adjusted for inflation. The thesis then conducts sensitivity analysis around potential variations in the data to explore changes to the monetized values.