Factorio Forums

TLDR

Make a power source that doesn't need water, only fuel.

WHAT

Having a power generator that requires no water would be handy in remote isolated places, especially if power is needed infrequently and/or in such amounts that using solar power and batterries would not be adequate, while also sparing the need to link it to the main network. Some people also like to take to the challenge of not using solar power, and that would be a replacement, essentially. It could be used to make coal mining site power itself. It would probably have similar recipe as locomotive, about the same size as steam engine, and lower efficiency than burner boiler.

WHY

Extra option for power supply, intermediate use case between solar power and steam power.

Just use the KSPower mod as it provides a perfect burner generator (and two other means to generate electricity without water). As noted in the Read this or be Ignored thread, ideas with a mod implementation are more likely to get implemented in the game. KSPower has been around for a long time and is very polished - oh and is made by a factorio staff member. So as it's not in the base game, it is probably because it has been deemed something that goes against the "puzzle aspect" of Factorio, the reasoning is likely that a feature as useful and powerful as electricity should be moderately complex to set up.

Additionally, for powering things locally when a burnable fuel source is available: Import water via trains. For when no fuelsource is available: Import steam via trains. May seem odd, but a two wagon trainfull of steam that feeds directly into a few turbines or steamengines, can power an outpost pollution free.