Jamaica Bay: The Economics of Clean Power
The Economics of Clean Power
Here's a useful reference to the Maxis vanilla power plants in SimCity 4.
† Lifespan, Air Pollution, and Water Pollution, sourced from:
https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/SimCity-4/reference/power-plant-information-r309/
If you look at the Efficiency column above, comparing Cost per MWh for each plant, you can see there's a definite premium for clean power, with the clean options running at §0.19 to §0.25 Cost per MWh, while the dirty plants run at §0.04 to §0.13 Cost per MWh.
Thing is, my Jamaica Bay city tile, in my New York region, will have an economic backbone of C$$ and C$$$ commercial from very early on, not manufacturing (I-M), and certainly not dirty industry (I-D) or agriculture (I-A), and commercial growth in SimCity 4 is massively impeded by pollution, as I describe in this other post of mine, Ten Silent Killers of SimCity 4 Commercial Growth.
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Clean power in Jamaica Bay is not just a "nice to have"
— it's an economic necessity!
Because of the impact of pollution on commercial growth C$$ and C$$$, using dirty power plants to save a little money is false economy, and my city doesn't have the cashflow initially to fork out §1,000 each month to maintain a Solar (thermal) Power Plant, with scads and scads of power that I don't need yet. Of course, Jonas Sparks would then tell me about the "Shame of Squandered Power", and I really don't need his voice in my ear. 
... so that leaves just one solution, Wind power. Problem is, I don't like having my Wind Power Plants scattered around. At some point, the oldest ones will start to fail, and I have to try to remember which ones I plopped first. The solution to that, of course, is a wee little wind farm ... the idea being to replace the wind farm with the Solar Power Plant when my city has grown up a bit. I came up with this aesthetically pleasing layout, which fits 18 Wind Power Plants in the same 6x6 plop as the Solar Power Plant.
Even better, referencing the same table again, 25 Wind Power Plants have the same power output as 1 Solar Power Plant, so when this 6x6 windfarm is full with 18 little windmills, my next step is to bulldoze the lot and build a Solar Power Plant. 
... with the game on pause, of course! The last thing my C$$ and C$$$ commercial districts need is a city-wide power outage. 
But, isn't bulldozing the wind farm a waste of money?
By the time I need a 19th windmill, then sure as hogs are made of bacon, I'll be needing the 21st windmill soon after. That's the point at which the Solar Power Plant becomes cheaper to run than all those little windmills. Many people worry about Capital Cost, but the bigger concern is Monthly Cost. It only takes 11 months for a windmill's Monthly Cost to exceed it's Capital Cost! Better yet, the Solar Power Plant is more efficient than Wind, with a Monthly Cost the same as 20 windmills, but Power Output of 25 windmills.
11 months goes by super quick in the game.
Yes, it totally makes economic sense to bulldoze the 18 windmills.
Will Jamaica Bay be able to afford the §30,000 Capital Cost for the Solar Power Plant by then? Absolutely. I'm building Jamaica Bay as a C$$ and C$$$ tourism powerhouse, capitalising on the eternal commuter bug, as this post explains. We'll be able to cover the cost. 
If Jamaica Bay did happen to fall on really hard times, I guess I'd be putting a Coal Power Plant out in my nature reserve, somewhere in a very far corner of the city tile. Power Lines are cheap as chips, and a Coal Power Plant delivers more power for a quarter of the cost of the Solar Power Plant. I've done that before. The sims are happy, and business is booming, as long as the pollution is far, far away! That is a valid approach, but not one I want for this city tile.
PS. There is another solution to clean power, too, and that's to buy it from a neighbour through the Neighbour Deals in the Expense Budget. With just one other city in this latest region of mine, that won't be an option this time ... but for another city tile coming soon, that's exactly what I'll do!
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