What??? That makes no sense. Comparing energy to power is like comparing distance to speed. They are related but not interchangeable. The top part has 100 megawatts on a 6.7% duty cycle spread over 12,000 houses would be 555 watts per house continuously. That's reasonable. Then the confusion comes trying to expand that over time to larger cities. If you run it for 17 minutes it will still only power those same 12,000 houses for that time.
Also, the small "m" is for milli rather than mega. This definitely takes megawatts. I figured 34 megawatts for a fully loaded F-18, not including the mass of the moving parts of the catapult itself.
Yes. People do not understand the difference between energy and power. I have tried to explain it, but it is usually a lost cause. Even some electricians and engineers I have talked to misuse the terms. The people who made this chart should know better!
Using their numbers, P = 1 x 10^5 kW, time = (17/60) hour, that is about 28,300 kWh of energy. At my cost of $0.12 per kWh, the energy would cost $3400 or about $170 for each of 20 aircraft launched.
Of course, their efficiency is not the same as a light plant, which is providing continuous energy output rather than intermittent output. Include in that maintenance, etc, and its going to raise the actual operating cost. Also, cranking that amount out on a carrier is probably quite a feat.