Largest solar field I made so far - still not enough power

[Geertje123]

Hello all,

I've built a very large solar field, and it's still under construction as it needs to expand each day to keep up with the increased energy usage. How do I fix this? I was thinking of mods that would multiply the power output by something like 2.
ps. I do not prefer to use steam engines.

Complete world as of now:


Solar fields compared to factory


Center of the fatory. (couldn't get it all in one image)


Solarfields


Usage


Some robot stats

[Qon]

If you want a mod that gives you better solar panels: viewtopic.php?f=120&t=23899
It gives you recipes for better solar panels and accumulators. To make mark 2 solar panels you need 5 normal solar panels +some more stuff for a solar panel that gives 4 times as much. Same with accumulators. Higher tier panels and accus work similarly. It's fairly cheap to make the first versions. The MK6 panel gives 1024 times more power but is extremely expensive so if you are on limited resources then it's preferable to stick to the lower tiers. The MK3 is enough to compress your solar field down to the size of your factory.

MK6 is more compressed than necessary, but if you need a resource sink...
I have a 5GW solar field about the size of 2 of your small cells of panels+accumulators q:

[Geertje123]

If you want a mod that gives you better solar panels: viewtopic.php?f=120&t=23899
It gives you recipes for better solar panels and accumulators. To make mark 2 solar panels you need 5 normal solar panels +some more stuff for a solar panel that gives 4 times as much. Same with accumulators. Higher tier panels and accus work similarly. It's fairly cheap to make the first versions. The MK6 panel gives 1024 times more power but is extremely expensive so if you are on limited resources then it's preferable to stick to the lower tiers. The MK3 is enough to compress your solar field down to the size of your factory.

MK6 is more compressed than necessary, but if you need a resource sink...
I have a 5GW solar field about the size of 2 of your small cells of panels+accumulators q:

Thanks, looks good. Glad it doesn't have dependencies haha.

[Leveller]

I have around 45k solars in my current map. The thing is you need to blueprint it, And when you get far away from the production of solars/accus, you have to start loading them into a train and bring them out closer so blueprints dont expire.

[Geertje123]

I have around 45k solars in my current map. The thing is you need to blueprint it, And when you get far away from the production of solars/accus, you have to start loading them into a train and bring them out closer so blueprints dont expire.

Yeah I had this problem as well, so I manually set the expiration time to one hour haha.

[AutoMcD]

It's because your demand is excessive. Such pollution for a spread out area is impressive.
Beacons are expensive in terms of energy, and using modules will easily double or quadruple energy usage of whatever you put them in. Just the beacon itself is what, like 500kw just to sit there? And a panel only outputs 60kw? Well it looks like they are using 110MW, that's over 1,800 panels just for the beacons to sit there, not even counting the module effects.
If you are building a rocket, that thing sucks down 4MW by itself, and can accept 4 beacons!

I don't understand the purpose of so many roboports, but they are energy hogs as well. Using drones instead of conveyors uses a deceptively large amount of energy.

In conclusion, keep building solar. Eventually you will outpace demand.
And demand will always match production while accumulators are charging, really you want to see if they charge completely before the daylight ends, then see how much headroom you have when demand from them drops. You might be ok.

And consider efficiency modules. In the high-usage buildings they can be much cheaper than it would cost to produce that many panels in terms of saved energy. If that makes sense.

edit:
also consider if you need so many laser turrets in that pattern. They have high standby power.. again obvious if you check the chart to see where this is going. 1000 of your panels are just to keep the turrets turned on. Each of your solar tiles has 12 of them..

I also use roboport sized tile but only 4 turrets, and when all 4 of them are interior corners I delete them. Maybe keep 1 or two for "just in case" but if they are several layers in them no need for turrets at all there.

[Ranakastrasz]

If you aren't already, use efficiency modules, at least Mk1, in pretty much everything. While that prevents you from using productivity modules, the 60% power cost discount is massive.

Efficiency modules are useless in beacons, and productivity are forbidden. Beacons should as such only be used for supporting either oil wells or countering speed loss from productivity modules (used only for really expensive stuff that needs it).


Roboports use a silly large amount of power, using belts wherever you can is better, and only use roboports for small volume transport of high value stuff or repairs...
Using them for EVERYTHING is a bad idea. While the density you get for the forge is significant, the power cost skyrockets.


Steam engines, if you have enough oil to make fuel cubes, can produce significantly more power in the same amount of space as solar panels. That does result in pollution and loss of oil, but that is still sustainable.

[creekz]

It looks like a huge part of the electricity consumtion is actually the accumulators charging, not your factory.

[Frightning]

It looks like a huge part of the electricity consumption is actually the accumulators charging, not your factory.

He's got almost twice as many Accumulators as are needed for the number of Solar Panel's he's got. If you're wondering why you haven't managed to 'get ahead' on power, try letting it run for a few days and see if your accumulators have actually been filled up (and thus no longer consuming power).

[ssilk]

Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 10.59.08.png (979.26 KiB) Viewed 8004 times

Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 11.01.00.png (1.01 MiB) Viewed 8004 times

Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 11.01.29.png (656.17 KiB) Viewed 8004 times

Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 11.02.08.png (538.42 KiB) Viewed 8004 times

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Maybe it helps to see the dimensions you need to think.

Ah, and before someone asks: I don't know exactly, how much power this produces, cause the factory is in "stand by"-mode, to spare CPU time (currently 15 UPS), and so it doesn't use much power. But I estimate from the statisics it might produce about 5 or 5.5 GW max. at day. The standby power usage is 1.2 GW.

[Geertje123]

I don't understand the purpose of so many roboports, but they are energy hogs as well. Using drones instead of conveyors uses a deceptively large amount of energy.

I like them because they automatically balance the input over every requester chest.

In conclusion, keep building solar. Eventually you will outpace demand.

I indeed outpass demand several times, however, I am quick with expanding my base and mining sites (all my miners use speed modules btw). So there are times when I can't expand my factory because my robots are building the powerplan too slow :p
Mainly because it's so far away and they have to charge often during that trip. Even with 2600 construction robots.

also consider if you need so many laser turrets in that pattern. They have high standby power.. again obvious if you check the chart to see where this is going. 1000 of your panels are just to keep the turrets turned on. Each of your solar tiles has 12 of them..

Very much true, I initially designed the blueprint this way because I was under heavy attack of enemies. Due to it having to be symmertical and me not being able to start using a different blueprint half way that field I never designed a better blueprint.

when all 4 of them are interior corners I delete them.

Good idea, but that would be manual work, so I am too lazy and just let them sit there haha

-----

It looks like a huge part of the electricity consumtion is actually the accumulators charging, not your factory.

Indeed, I also have seperate accumulator fields in case anything goes wrong. That way I have more than enough backup power (which has come in handy several times)

[Geertje123]

~~

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Maybe it helps to see the dimensions you need to think.

Ah, and before someone asks: I don't know exactly, how much power this produces, cause the factory is in "stand by"-mode, to spare CPU time (currently 15 UPS), and so it doesn't use much power. But I estimate from the statisics it might produce about 5 or 5.5 GW max. at day. The standby power usage is 1.2 GW.

Changed the title of the thread for ya

[Tnarg]

all my miners use speed modules btw.

It would be better to have twice as many mining bases running at normal speed than the current number running at 200% speed. It would save you power even before you consider using Efficiency Mods which will lower you power by 80% if you use 3x lvl 1 efficiency mods per miner.

[Ranakastrasz]

all my miners use speed modules btw.

It would be better to have twice as many mining bases running at normal speed than the current number running at 200% speed. It would save you power even before you consider using Efficiency Mods which will lower you power by 80% if you use 3x lvl 1 efficiency mods per miner.

Yea. I either use two efficiency and optionally one speed module (110% power cost, +20% speed) or productivity module (80% power cost, -15% speed, +4 production)
And then have two or three times as many mines running. More mines evens out, uses less power, and lasts longer. Productivity module setup spreads it out even more. This lets me mine areas out over significantly longer periods of time, giving a more stable supply of resources.

The exception is if I want to develop structures or otherwise in an area, in which case I use triple speed of the highest tier I have, purely to clean an area out as fast as possible.

I only use speed modules and beacons for Oil (Since I rarely have enough) and I use productivity modules and beacons for assemblers for Alien Artifact related stuff (Since the bonus is well worth it in that situation)

[Geertje123]

When I mine ore deposits I have to mine them 'away' as fast as possible. I've started a new world with mods, not vanilla anymore. These mods give a lot of upgraded solar structures, which is nice.

[Ranakastrasz]

When I mine ore deposits I have to mine them 'away' as fast as possible. I've started a new world with mods, not vanilla anymore. These mods give a lot of upgraded solar structures, which is nice.

Well, as nice as it is to mine really, really fast, you have to realize that that comes at a premium in power consumption.