[0.8.x] Big solar farm

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zlosynus
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by zlosynus »

Wow, beautiful designs in this thread, thanks :). I personally just place solar panels in 2x5 blocks, with lanes running on both sides. Also in a lot of situations I don't have much free space since I don't want to remove too much forest (makes green factory more green :)).

Aru
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by Aru »

60 panels, 51 accumulators, 3 substations
Image

Ratio is 0.85, power is 60*42 kW = 2520 kW
Add 5 stray panels for every 7 instances of the pattern to get 0.84
~98.4127% of area is panels and accumulators
2520 kW/3 = 840 kW per substation

Only wire-connects to other patterns in one direction. So, you can pack it tight (in both directions) without gaps, but you need a run of poles down one side of the greater array to connect the rows. Patched, they connect both ways.
Last edited by Aru on Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:55 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Koub
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by Koub »

Nice, almost 2 year necro :).
You just earned the necromancer achievement :)

FYI, this topic was created before blueprints existed ;)
Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.

Aru
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by Aru »

I guess I could have found somewhere else to put it. But, people still use these patterns, and the calculations are still accurate.

DutchJer
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by DutchJer »

ill shut my face about my solar, running about 4 GW of solar. and i probably need more with my new smeltery.

pjf
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by pjf »

/me casts raise thread.

I *really* liked DaveMc W's layout, which includes walkways and space for a roboport, so here's a shareable blueprint for it. A huge thanks to DaveMc W for such a great design!
Blueprint

iceman_1212
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by iceman_1212 »

Koub wrote:FYI, this topic was created before blueprints existed ;)
:o the dark ages

D0SBoots
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by D0SBoots »

I like the 48x48 optimal layout w/ roboport, but I really don't like substations. 4 medium power poles have the same coverage (better, if you space them carefully) and take the same amount of space, while costing far fewer resources. Usually I don't even bother researching Electric energy distribution 2, since it's not needed for anything.

Accordingly, I set out to design a 48x48 that has close to the optimal 25:21 ratio and a roboport, but uses medium power poles. This is what I came up with:
Solar Farm.png
Solar Farm.png (1.47 MiB) Viewed 7518 times
The pattern gets a little messed up on the side, to accommodate the roboport and even out the ratio. I believe this is nearly the best that can be done for a 48x48, which is a nice size because it's the biggest you can go and still have fully connected roboports and rails in-between.

Size: 48x48 (2304 tiles)
Useful area : 2246 (97.5%)
Solar panels: 182
Accumulators: 152 (.8352 ratio)
Medium power poles: 36
Roboport: 1
* Logistic network tilable
* Electric network tilable (with two space gaps, so you can run train tracks in-between)
* You can add the roboport in later if you want to
Blueprint
Edit: I discovered a better layout (twice), which replaced the previous one. You can still remove 7 panels and 5 accumulators if you want exactly a 25:21 ratio.
Last edited by D0SBoots on Tue May 23, 2017 5:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.

BurnHard
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by BurnHard »

Wohoo my old post lives again :D

This was 3 1/2 years ago :o

D0SBoots
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Re: [0.8.x] Big solar farm

Post by D0SBoots »

After having going through various iterations of my 48x48 design, I think I can make some definitive statements about the efficiency of various solar strategies. The TL;DR is this: the most space efficient setup is to mix solar panels and accumulators together.

For a pure solar layout, the best we know of (probably the best possible) was listed up-thread: one pole each at the corners of a 2x3 block of solar panels. This works out to 2*3*9=54 usable squares per 55, or an efficiency ratio of 98.18%.

For a pure accumulator layout, the best layout I know of looks like this:
Tiled Accumulator.jpg
Tiled Accumulator.jpg (165.36 KiB) Viewed 7513 times
That's one pole per 4x4 block of accumulators, or 64 usable per 65 total, for an efficiency ratio of 98.46%.

Those are pretty good numbers, although you have to consider that they're not square layouts, and you can't even put them alongside each other because their off-axis tilt angles aren't quite the same. But by mixing panels and accumulators, we can do even better, and in a square layout. The basic building block is this 5x7 shape:
Basic Block.jpg
Basic Block.jpg (29.93 KiB) Viewed 7513 times
When you put it end-to-end, you can alternate its orientation, which makes the pattern more appealing and makes it easier to lay out by hand.

Where it really shines is that there's room on both the top and the bottom to stack another row of solar panels or accumulators.
Full Block.jpg
Full Block.jpg (259.61 KiB) Viewed 7513 times
This makes the rows too widely spaced to connect, so you have to connect them once at the end, but the overall gain makes it worth it. By stacking two rows of solar panels, you have 76 usable out of 77 tiles, for a ratio of 98.70%. Changing one of the rows to accumulators lowers the efficiency a little to 69/70 = 98.57%. Either way, both of these are comfortably above what can be done with a single-type tessellation.

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