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Medium Profitability

Sunshine Power

#Energy

Practice this intermediate profitability case interview question in the Energy sector. Includes detailed problem prompt, clarifying questions, structured framework, and expert recommendation. Part of ProHub's 835+ consulting case library.

ProHub Comment

This is a breakeven analysis case that requires candidates to build a financial model around a capital efficiency problem. The key insight is recognizing that coal price volatility is the critical driver of project viability, and comparing the breakeven coal price ($87.50) against historical and current market prices to make a recommendation.

Estimated Time 26 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source NYU
19 / 100
You are a consultant who has been engaged by Sunshine Power, owner of a coal power station on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. Six year’s ago Sunshine Power commenced a pilot project with SunSteam, a solar tech company. SunSteam technology allows your client to reduce the quantity of coal it consumes by using sunlight as an additional heat source. The $3.5M AUD pilot, involving one SunSteam array, experienced many technical difficulties at first but has just broken even. Recently, SunSteam proposed to expand the pilot by constructing four additional SunSteam arrays. Your client has very specific project investment criteria and is not sure if they should accept the SunSteam proposal.

Clarifying Information

  1. Cost of expansion? Unknown – make assumption based on case prompt ($3.5M per array)
  2. Output of One SunSteam Array? Steam produced by array equated to 0.2% saving in annual coal quantity consumed on average
  3. Annual Consumption of Thermal Coal? Plant operates 24hours a day at 100% output capacity. Prior to pilot plant consumed 4 million metric tons of Thermal Coal per Annum
  4. Array Operating costs? SunSteam is easy to maintain, and is maintained by existing on-site staff (assume Op Cost = $0)
  5. Client Investment Criteria? Payback must be less than 5 years, based on internal cost savings only
Mock Interview
Interviewer

You are a consultant who has been engaged by Sunshine Power, owner of a coal power station on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. Six year's ago Sunshine Power commenced a pilot project with SunSteam, a solar tech company. SunSteam technology allows your client to reduce the quantity of coal it consumes by using sunlight as an additional heat source. The $3.5M AUD pilot, involving one SunSteam array, experienced many technical difficulties at first but has just broken even. Recently, SunSteam proposed to expand the pilot by constructing four additional SunSteam arrays. Your client has very specific project investment criteria and is not sure if they should accept the SunSteam proposal.

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
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Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

Sunshine Power must evaluate a $14M expansion of SunSteam solar arrays that would reduce coal consumption by 0.8% annually. The candidate must calculate the breakeven coal price required to achieve the 5-year payback criterion and assess project risks and benefits.

Key Insights:

  1. Fixed investment of $14M must be recovered through coal savings over 5 years at $2.8M per year
  2. Four arrays save 32,000 metric tons of coal annually (0.8% of 4M ton consumption)
  3. Breakeven coal price is $87.50/ton; current price of ~$83/ton makes payback infeasible unless prices rise
  4. Coal price volatility is the fundamental risk; technical implementation delays compound this risk
  5. Candidates should explore mitigation strategies like hedging coal prices or negotiating down construction costs

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