Generators
Power your factory! It needs electricity!
Generator Basics
Power generators usually create power in exchange for something. This could be a space requirement from other devices of the same type (Device Crowding), other requirements like a item of some type, like coal, or a liquid like petroleum to produce power. Generators are broken up into tiers. T1 power sources create a low amount of power but take very little setup to achieve. These are great for getting started, but you should be striving to move up the power tier list.
T1 Power Generators
Alot of power sources here are actually renewable! But they have a lot of drawbacks. These again are great to get started but your power demands will very likely out grow them.
Combustion Generator
This burns items to generate power, it needs to be a fuel source. This does get 2x the fuel then it normally would provide in vanilla Minecraft. So 1 coal will burn for the length of time 2 coal would! This is a great power source to get started, but you want to get off it quickly as it makes a bit of pollution.
Solar Panel
This renewable harvests power from the sun, it will collect dust over time, you can use a brush to clear it manually. By default you wont need to clean your panels for around 6 hours. You can automate cleaning them later on. This is effected by clouds as well, and in space this device needs to be placed on the bottom of your space ship as the sun is actually beneath the ship. The solar panel generates its peak power during the middle of a day.
Crank Generator
This device is fairly useless on its on, you need to use it with another device, its even better when used with a battery. It will consume hunger to produce power. Its very useful early on.
Moonlight Panel
This generates power from the moon at night. It can produce more power then a solar panel, but it is tied to moon cycle. So it'll produce more or less power based on that.
Lightning Generator
This generate power from lightning strikes. You really want this attached to a power grid with batteries to actually get value out of it. Some planets can be more stormy then others so this can be very useful on them.
Wind Turbine
This device generates power from wind, wind is a bit chaotic though so you will want to have batteries to go with them. Some planets produce more or less wind then others. These have a crowding penalty so you have to space them out.
Geothermal Generator
This device generates power from lava pools. It does need to be source lava blocks and it needs a copper slab above it. You want to wax this as well as it will reduce its power output if its not pure. You can also get a core heat bonus by digging below y level 0 and placing them in lava there. Core heat changes slowly over time, similar to wind but not as chaotic. In general this will produce power at all times to a degree. These have a crowding penalty so you have to space them out.
Tidal Generator
This device generates power from tides. You need to place it in a large body of water. In the middle of a deep lake or a sea is a good choice. It requires two iron doors on its left and right sides to work but it will generate peak power twice a day, similar to tides in the real world. These have a crowding penalty so you have to space them out.
Glowstone Generator
This is a unique generator, it uses glowstone for fuel and produces items from it. These are nether based items but this can be useful as it also doesn't make pollution. This device can also be used in the nether for a double fuel buff.
T2 & Above Power Generators
Most of these power sources make a lot of power. But unlike T1 sources, they require resources to keep generating power.
Steam Engine (T2)
This device uses steam to generate power, it doesn't make any pollution itself! These are a great leap forward in power production.
Hydrogen Engine (T2)
This produces power from Hydrogen, which can be obtained from a Gas Extractor or an Advanced Assembler using blue ice and gas canisters. It makes clean power, but is hard to harvest reliably. These are useful in space though as blue ice is available in the asteroids there.
Petroleum Engine (T3)
This power device generates power from Petroleum or Petrol for short. It is a dirt power source but it generates a lot of power. So you don't need many of them!
Nuclear Reactor (T4)
The pinnacle of power production, whilst obtaining uranium might make some pollution, compared to other sources it produces very little and makes a ton of power. It will use less space then other devices as well. This produces heat which is consumed by Heat Exchangers to produce steam.
Heavy Steam Engine (T4)
Similar to the steam engine accept it requires a lot more steam to make power. These are usually used in nuclear reactor setups as they make a lot of steam.
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