Guides/Power and Energy Costs

What's in 100 Watts

The purpose of this guide is to quantify the strengths and weaknesses of each method of generating power. For each method the cost (including frames) to generate 100 power is calculated and broken down into the number of spaces required, the resources required, and the number of seconds it takes a standard miner to gather those resources.

For simplicity this excludes processing time Laser Extractor mining time, but in general recipes that require more basic resources also require more processing per resource.

Stationary Power

This assumes using the cheapest available building for each component size: Building 1x1 (1S), Building 1x1 (1M), and Building 1x1 (1L)

	Miner-seconds	Space	Metal Ore	Crystal Chunk	File:Silica sand.pngSilica sand	Blight Crystal Chunk	Laterite ore	Notes
Crystal Power	550	0.67	10.0	10.0				1
Solar Cell+Small Battery	4519	3.83	76.3	89.2				2
Solar Panel+Large Battery	10969	0.45	153.8	112.4	100.3	10.8	9.8	3
Wind Turbine	5515	1.00	128.0	61.0	5.0			4
Large Wind Turbine	4564	0.25	64.5	42.8	52.0			4
Power Unit	3745	0.10	40.0	19.0	31.5	22.5	40.0	5
Power Core	11550	0.10	153.4	110.5	139.5
Power Cell	34690		452.0	526.0	266.0
Blight Power Generator	366	0.10	7.2	1.0		2.5	5.0	6

1. Uses 1 crystal chunk (25 miner-seconds) per 100 power per 60 seconds. So after around 3 hours (of running near max power) it's less efficient than having built solar cells, and after around 7.5 hours it's less efficient than having built a power core. However, keep in mind that the cost isn't paid upfront and that 3 hours might make better power options available
2. A cheap source of earlygame grid power
3. Not useful in a stationary configuration. Less space and resource efficient than wind power, even when not on a plateau
4. If not running on a plateau double all costs. Requires battery backup during blight storms
5. This is the only option with a significant Laser Extractor mining cost at 1200 seconds, making it more comparable to expensive options like power cores than miner-seconds implies
6. The current best stationary power source, although it requires dipping into three tech trees

Mobile Power

TODO

Miner-seconds	Space	Metal Ore	Crystal Chunk	File:Silica sand.pngSilica sand	Blight Crystal Chunk	Laterite ore	Notes
Crystal Power	633	0.74	11.9	11.1

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