(GP/GT) for Additional Water Supply in the Lower Rio Grande

different locations across the United States. Plant productivity, defined as
net blooms produced per plant per year, is largely dependent upon local
climatic conditions and technological improvements. Regional variations in
productivity have been explicitly analyzed. The greenhouse operation is
assumed to be four acres in size and the facilities utilize current
technologies. The operation is designed as a professionally organized company
with an owner/manager, grower, and salesperson. The primary product is a red
hybrid tea rose for the wholesale market, generally located in large
metropolitan areas. The analysis strongly indicates that new installations
for cut-flower rose production are profitable in several areas in the
southwest U.S., particularly in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. No one area
stands out as a favored location; however, las Cruces, N.M., has the highest
net present value and return on investment of those sites investigated
(Whittier and Fischer, 1990, Appendix F).
Based on the pro forma model results for the las Cruces area, an area that
may be more typical of areas in the gulf coast region where geopressured
resources exist, a cut-flower rose operation may be established and operated
in a southwest location at a profitable level. Because of lower real estate
prices and the lack of high intensity discharge lighting in the southwest,
less capital is required to start a new greenhouse business. However, this
analysis does not factor in the cost of a developing geopressured well as the
heat source. If the geopressured facility only sells methane and the
agriculture/aquaculture products, adding the well results in a 15% discounted
payback period of slightly over 10 years. Because of the marginal economics
of this facility, an aquaculture/agriculture facility could be coupled with
other uses such as a desalination facility to be more profitable. When the
facility includes methane, desalinated water, bottled water, salt, and
agriculture/aquaculture products, the discounted payback period is reduced to
4 years, with a 10 years NPV of about $6 million. The addition of electricity
generation with a methane agriculture/aquaculture facility significantly
increases the discounted payback period to over 10 years, when the power ,is
sold at 6 cents/kWh.
54