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

greenhouse complex.. A printout of the computer inputs is included
in Appendix. C.
ELECTRICITY LOAD: The electricity load is computed by
summing the total annual hours of sunlight for each location, which
was obtained from the "Facility Design and Planning Engineering
Weather Data," published by the Departments of the Air Force, the
Army. and the Navy. Both kilowatt hours per acre per year and
kilowatts per acre are calculated.
H.LD. ELECTRICITY LOAD: The H.LD. electricity energy load is
based on the total number of H.LD. lights operating sixteen hours per
day, seven months per year. Both kilowatt hours per acre per year
and kilowatts per acre are calculated.
WATER CONSUMPTION: An estimate of the number of gallons
of water per acre of covered area per year per location is assumed,
based on data obtained from "Greenhouse Roses," published by Roses
Inc., and from individual greenhouses. It is assumed that
greenhouses in locations that do not utilize evaporative cooling use
approximately one-half the amount of water utilized by greenhouses
using evaporative cooling.
BOILER EFFICIENCY: Because a natural gas burnerlboiler has
combustion inefficiencies. the boiler is assumed to be 75% efficient.
C02: The approx.imate square footage cost to generate carbon
dioxide was obtained from the Ball Red Book. C02 will only be used
from October to April.
Amortization Assumptions
PRINCIPAL: A debt-to-assets ratio of approximately 70% is
typical for this industry segment (Bedding Plants, Inc., 1988
Greenhouse Operating Performance Report). Total capital costs were
multiplied by 70% to obtain the principal.
INTEREST RATE: A given interest rate is assumed. The interest
rate is 8.5%, which may be somewhat low for a current market rate.
However, the authors believe 8.5% reflects a high interest rate since
~ationary effects are incorporated into the model. Thus, the
8.5 % rate reflects a real or true rate and, in this case, is a
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