Instructions: Read the scenario and study the data below to answer the computational questions.

A local region consumes 12 million MWh (megawatt-hours) of electricity per year. Your engineering firm is being tasked with designing a hydroelectric dam that can meet 80% of this energy demand for the region. 

The dam you are designing operates at 90% efficiency, converting gravitational potential energy from the water into electricity. 

The total available gravitational energy from the river’s moving water is 15 million MWh per year. 

Q1. How much of the region’s total electricity demand is intended to be supplied by the hydroelectric dam (in MWh)? Show your work.

Q2. Given the dam’s efficiency is 90%, how much usable electrical energy (in MWh) can it generate per year? Show your work.

Q3. Does the hydroelectric dam design fulfill the needs of the region’s electricity demand? Explain. If so, was there any excess power produced, and how much? Show your work.

Q4. If the average household uses 10,000 kWh of electricity per year, how many homes could be powered by the dam’s usable energy output? Hint: 1 MWh = 1000 kWh

Q5. Hydroelectric dams produce no CO₂ during operation.  In comparison, coal burning power plants produce approximately 2,000 pounds of CO₂ per MWh and natural gas plants produce 900 pounds of CO₂ per MWh of production. Which energy source would you recommend for a region trying to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and why? Consider not just emissions, but also reliability, costs, and environmental trade-offs.