Power source

[TheEvilMango]

Hello I was wondering what is the best power source? I usually use only coal but I've seen some of u guys run large NG power plants. I heard that solar is kind of unreliable and that the steam turbine is best used as cooling and is hard to get it to run full time.

[Neotuck]

So far NG is the most popular as there are many sources in the game

Petroleum is a close second but can be more difficult to produce 

Hydrogen is best for self powering oxygen machines (SPOM) but isn't reliable as a primary source of power even with hydrogen vents

Coal works but only if you have a good hatch farm to sustain it 

Solar makes a good secondary power source, allowing your primary power sources to save up on fuel while you have clear skies on the surface 

and yes steam is best used for cooling

[Soulwind]

I use a mixture of coal and natural gas as my primary generators (both controlled by smart batteries).

I use hydrogen generators to power the oxygen system (1 generator and 1 smart battery per O2 unit)

so they run independently of the main power grid.

 

[thejams]

6 hours ago, Soulwind said:

I use hydrogen generators to power the oxygen system (1 generator and 1 smart battery per O2 unit)

so they run independently of the main power grid.

The oxygen system should produce around 300W of surplus energy per 10 dupes - it's a pity to throw it away, especially early game.  It's easy to setup automation which gives power priority to the oxygen system, but makes the surplus available to the base.

[tzionut]

Quote

solar is kind of unreliable and that the steam turbine is best used as cooling and is hard to get it to run full time.

Solar is the best... but first you must destroy all the regolith that is falling...in 50 cycle in which i open 20 tiles of my regolith no more wall i have an input of 460 tones....  you need open space for the observatory 

Steam turbine is  good... If you want to use exploit it can be running continuously for 200 cycle, if not is best for heat deletion.