Coal Generator

"For info about the Coal Generator in the Experimental branch of the game, see Coal Generator below. Editors, DO NOT mix the info from Early Access and Experimental branches together."

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.

Before you start

 * Complete the first delivery of the Space Elevator
 * Complete the Tier 3 Milestone - Coal Power

Stage 1

 * 1) Find a way to reach the Coal node, by building ladders or bridges. In this example, a Foundation bridge is built to cross over the void.
 * 2) Kill all hostile creatures guarding around the pure node. It is advised to engage them one-by-one.
 * 3) Remove the coal deposit sitting on top of the coal node (if any).
 * 4) Build a Miner Mk.1 on the coal node.
 * 5) Find a large empty space around it, then build a long 4x8 tiles of foundations as the floor. Additional foundations might be required to connect between the coal node and the floor. Prepare at least 300 concrete to do so.
 * 6) Build 6 coal generators, each with a Splitter in front of it. The direction of the flow is from the miner, through the mainline, then split into the individual generator.
 * 7) Connect all generators and splitters from the miner with Conveyor Belt Mk.1. Make sure the direction is correct.
 * 8) Between the 1st and 2nd coal generator, build a power pole. Put the 2nd pole between the 3rd and 4th generator and repeat down the line. Connect all power lines.
 * 9) Hand-mine 50 pieces of coal from the node and insert it into any of the coal generators you have built. This must be done to prime the generators.
 * 10) Connect the power line from the first pole to the Miner Mk.1. Once the coal power is running up smoothly, check if the power pole displayed power capacity as 300MW. If not, check all your belt and power line connections.
 * 11) Finally, connect the power line back to your main base. You may consider deconstructing all the Biomass Burner s at your base.

Phase 1 complete. Now you have 300MW of peak power capacity (270MW for sustained power consumption).

Stage 2

 * 1) Complete the Milestone - Logistics Mk.2 to unlock Conveyor Belt Mk.2.
 * 2) Extend the 4 x n foundations for your coal power.
 * 3) Build 5 additional coal generators for a total of 11. Build additional power poles accordingly and connect them all with power lines.
 * 4) Just in front of the Miner, insert a splitter into the belt by aiming the hologram of the splitter at it.
 * 5) From the splitter, split off another line of belt Mk.1 and feed into the 5 new coal generators you have built just now.
 * 6) In-between the miner and the splitter in front of it, upgrade the belt to Mk2. You can upgrade the belt in-place by selecting the mk2 blueprint and aim at the mk1 belt.

Phase 2 complete. Now you have 550MW of peak power capacity (520MW for sustained power consumption).

Stage 3

 * 1) Unlock Mk.3 belts and Steel Production.
 * 2) De-construct the Miner Mk.1 and replace it with Miner Mk.2.
 * 3) Open the Miner UI, Put a Power Shard into the overclocking slot and overclock it to 113%. To do so you can use the slider or by typing the number manually.
 * 4) Remove the Mk2 belts and 2 lines Mk1 belt in front of the Miner. Also, remove the splitter.
 * 5) Re-arrange the splitter direction, such that the splitter in-front of the Miner should receive the input from the miner. All other splitters should face either left or right according to the item flow.
 * 6) Connect the miner and the splitters with Mk3 belts.
 * 7) Replace all other conveyor belts in your coal power setup with Mk3 belts.
 * 8) Build 14 additional coal generators down the line (25 coal generators in total). You may need to extend the foundations to accommodate their space.
 * 9) Connect them with power lines and conveyor belts, splitters, etc.

Phase 3 complete. Now you have 1250MW of peak power capacity (1215MW for sustained power consumption).

Stage 4

 * 1) Unlock Mk.4 belts and use them in your coal power setup.
 * 2) Overclock the Miner Mk2 to 200%.
 * 3) Extend the number of coal generators to 44 for a peak capacity of 2200MW.

Stage 5

 * 1) Unlock Mk5 belts and extend the number of coal generators to 71 for a peak capacity of 3550MW.
 * 2) Unlock Miner Mk.3 for higher production rate, by completing Tier 7 - Bayer process.
 * 3) At this stage you might consider switching to Oil Powers or Nuclear Powers.
 * 4) Alternatively, you can choose to enrich your coal for increased number (2.22 times) of coal generators. To do this you need to unlock the Alternative Recipe for Compacted Coal.

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