Solar boiler / Solar thermal energy

[Zequez]

I think some people are misunderstanding what I meant. I meant not an electric boiler, but a solar boiler, with mirrors pointed to a single focal point that gets heated and boils water. These boilers work even in the night, because they heat some salt things with high heat capacity that keep the heat during the night, and keep the water boiling. I might have given the wrong idea in saying that the boiler should be created with solar panels, which is silly, because it uses mirrors, not solar panels.

[immibis]

There could be boilers that heat water from sunlight. Obviously they would be much slower than the fuel-burning boilers, so you'd need a lot more space for the same power.

[immibis]

In fact, if this doesn't fit in the game, how about adding a "solar" energy_source type for mods?

[G_glop]

I don't see purpoase of thsi idea, there are solar panels, and there is mod that adds electric boilers and smart tanks/pumps so you can make a battery that woud use electric boiler to heat liquids and use the smart tank to make sure that the liquid is at 100 degrees, and bam! you have a electrical sotreage with higher J per tile then wannila capacitors

[ray4ever]

I would like this type of power plant as part of the base game.

[G_glop]

I would like this type of power plant as part of the base game.

Btw, even if there was a solar boiler mod you woud need this mod to controll the power plant

link

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... t=alphamod

[MF-]

Yes, they do functionally clash with those solar panels.

But I think they might be more fun to setup from the engineering point of view.
Also we get the ability to create pollution-free mist, so biter migh not associate "smoke" with pollution so quickly.

[LCDq8]

Hello
I was wondering if it is possible to create solar boilers. Something like the CSP plants that heat the water through concentrating sunlight on a single point to heat water as a substitute for water boilers that use coal.
Something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

[Slayn25]

Solar boiler + Steam Engine = Electricity
Solar Panel = Electricity

Why?

[Yoyobuae]

Solar boiler + Steam Engine = Electricity
Solar Panel = Electricity

Why?

Because:
Solar Panel + Accumulator = Electricity (all day)
Solar boiler + Storage Tank + Steam Engine = Electricity (all day)

A completely filled tank with 100 degrees hot water stores 212 Megajoules! This is the equivalent to 42 Basic accumulators, but the tanks needs only 3x3 tiles of space.

[Gertibrumm]

We are getting heat elements as early adoption of the nuclear powerplant heat element stuff. Maybe not for solar but definitly for solid fuel. The future of power generation is actually more complex than it is now but hopefully more convenient (eg. turbine instead of massive steam engine arrays)

[PTTG]

I did a quick search to see if this was suggested somewhere and I didn't see it.

Solar boilers would fill an interesting niche in the game tech tree. They consume water and produce very little power per unit area, and that only during day. That said, they would be extremely cheap.... maybe iron and some stone bricks. Moreover, because they produce steam, not electricity, tanks can be used to store energy overnight.

That lead me to think about some other ways to play with fluids. One thought is an electric-powered boiler to use steam to store photovoltaic solar power (not too dissimilar from real-world compressed air power storage plants). It could also be used to power some industrial processes that call for steam.

I don't know the first thing about factorio modding but now I have to give it a shot because this sounds like a lot of fun to play with.

[darkfrei]

How about electric boiler with electric pole and solar panel? With this tree entities you can make the same solar water heater.

[FactorioParadox]

This topic would probably be better for the Ideas and Suggestions subform: viewforum.php?f=6

Edit: Just a recommendation, I'm not trying to be pushy.

[Koub]

This topic would probably be better for the Ideas and Suggestions subform: viewforum.php?f=6

[Koub] Indeed. Moved to Ideas and suggestions

[Oktokolo]

+1 as setups of boilers, pipes & tanks look more interesting than fields of batteries.

[Optera]

Sounds like solar towers to me.


They use high energy density fluids like molten salt to store energy and continously produce steam through heat exchangers.
We already have heat pipes and heat exchangers in game making solar furnaces a clean replacement to nuclear reactors.

PS: Yes Helios 1 from FNV was based on the Solar tower in my picture.

[olafthecat]

Like the idea. +1
Why not add Hydroelectric Dams as well!
Sorry, I'm still very salty about that...
Anyway, these 'solar boiler' things could be a bit like a clean version of nuclear power.
You would have the intense heat from the solar boiler to turn the turbine instead!

[steinio]

Solar Updraft Tower: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/solar_updraft_tower

[Aza-Industries]

Hey everyone, I'm sooper loopy right now but I had an Idea I wanted to record before I forget, so I can check later if it was good.

Anywho, I had this idea of a heliostat steam plant.

Basically you would build a central tower and provide water to it.

Then you would build turret like mirrors around and have to aim them manually both angle and distance(representing tilting mirror back and forth)
And basically you would have to manually aim quite a few unique angles, which you could then automate with blueprints.

The more you have aiming at the tower the more steam it would generate that you can use in steam engines of fans.

Maybe you would need to add some sort of maintenence/usage cost for each mirror, otherwise everyone would always max out their mirrors straight away without and drawbacks to their economy.

Hopefully that all makes sense..
I left a note for myself to check this in the morning. I'll be back to fix up grammar,spelling, structures.
THanks for reading.