Coal Generator

The Coal Generator is a building that generates Power by using. It is the first fully automate-able power source the player has access to and also the first power source to use a mined resource. For Beginner's guide for setting up coal power, see the section below. (Experimental: Additionally requires 45m³/min of Water to be inputted from Water Extractors through Pipelines).

Fuel energy values
Energy is given in MJ. 1MJ provides 1 MW of power for 1 second or 50 MW of power (1 Coal Generator at 100% load) for 0.02 seconds.

Generators per node
A single node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at sustained peak capacity (decimal amounts of machines mean that the clock speed of the last machine needs to be adjusted for maximum efficiency): The equation is as follows:

$$Coal Mined Per Min\times Fuel Burn Time \over 60sec$$

For a Coal Generator that is not overclocked, its Coal burn time is 5.4 seconds (displayed next to the stopwatch in the coal generator UI), i.e. it needs 100 / 9 = 11.11 Coal/min

Fuel burn time and peak capacity
The real fuel burn time with all generators depends on the amount of power actually being used. However, the UI does not show the real burn time, it shows the burn time if the generator is operating at peak capacity.

So, the 5,4 seconds burn time for Coal Generators shown in-game is how long it takes to burn 1 Coal if all of the power that the generator can possibly produce is being used .

For example: if a base has 1 Coal Generator, and is using all of the possible 50 MW, the fuel burn time will be 5.4 seconds. But, if the base is only using 25 MW, the fuel burn time will be (supposedly) doubled.

Trivia

 * The Coal Generator, like all power generating buildings, behaves differently to other buildings when overclocked. See Clock Speed for more info.
 * The top part of the chimney is not inside the building collision box; it will stick through a foundation if the foundation is built 32 meters above it. (Note: in the Experimental version of Patch 0.3, this appears to have been fixed.)

Experimental
Experimental The Coal Generator received major changes in Patch 0.3: Besides Coal, Water now needs to be supplied. It now also produces 75 MW of power.

Generators per node
A single node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at sustained peak capacity (decimal amounts of machines mean that the clock speed of the last machine needs to be adjusted for maximum efficiency):


 * Coal burn time is 4 seconds, which means that a single Coal Generator consumes 15 Coal/min.
 * Pipelines only have a capacity of 300 m³/min. Thus, when connecting Water Extractors to a line feeding 7 or more Coal Generators, Water inputs either need to be spaced out or be separated.
 * Alternatively, it is possible to underclock each Water Extractor to 75% and connect it to exactly 2 Coal Generators. Then, the amount of Water Extractors is half the amount of Coal Generators.


 * The Miner and Water Extractors consume power, so the actual power capacity is less.

History

 * Patch 0.3: Now requires Water to operate, appearance changed accordingly to include a Pipeline input.

Kohlekraftwerk Générateur de charbon