A country needs to build new power plants to meet the increasing demand for electric power. One possibility is to build coal-fired power plants, which cost $1300 per kW to construct and have an efficiency of 40 percent. Another possibility is to build clean-burning Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants where the coal is subjected to heat and pressure to gasify it while removing sulfur and particulate matter from it. The gaseous coal is then burned in a gas turbine, and part of the waste heat from the exhaust gases is recovered to generate steam for the steam turbine. The construction of IGCC plants costs about $1500 per kW, but their efficiency is about 48 percent. The average heating value of the coal is about 28,000,000 kJ per ton (that is, 28,000,000 kJ of heat is released when 1 ton of coal is burned). If the IGCC plant is to recover its cost difference from fuel savings in five years, determine what the price of coal should be in $ per ton.

Aland development company purchases several acres of land adjacent to a wildlife reserve. it plans to build a new community, complete with shops and schools. green sands, a local environmental group, complains that the company's proposed building methods will disrupt the area's ecological balance. the company wants to respect the local ecology but also wants to build its development. the company decides to schedule a meeting with green sands's representatives to make choices about the property that are agreeable to both sides. which strategy would be most effective in this situation?

Onsider the following subscription behavior information from genie, a web site that provides tools for constructing a family tree (ancestor search). subscriptions cost $9.99 per month, but you are charged for the entire year at the time of purchase. there is a one-year minimum term when you sign up for the service. once purchased, subscriptions are set to renew automatically unless the subscriber cancels them. when a membership renews, it renews for a one-year term and again you are charged for the entire year. there are no variable costs associated with providing this service to an individual customer, but genie does engage in customer relationship activities that they believe will increase customer retention. these customer relationship activities cost genie about $10 per year per customer. based on a sample of 1000 customers that joined genie five years ago, near the time when the company was founded, they were able to determine how many of those customers remained subscribers in the second year, third year etc. based on this information, genie calculated the average annual retention rate to be 20%. genie uses an annual discount rate of 8%. a. last year, genie spent $10,000 placing advertisements on google. genie management believes that these advertisements were responsible for about 300 new subscribers. would you recommend to genie management that they purchase more google ads? b. suppose a newly-introduced loyalty program increases the number of customers that remained to 30%. does this new data change your answer to 9.a? c. do you have any hesitations or concerns about making recommendations to management based on your above estimate of customer lifetime value?

Why should managers invest any excess cash