Coal Generator

The Coal Generator is a building that generates Power using and. It is the first fully automate-able power source the engineer has access to and also the first power source to use a mined resource.

Fuel consumption
The consumption of all fuels and Water is proportionally reduced when the Power usage is not at 100%. For instance, if only half of the power is being used, then both the fuel and Water last 2x as long. At 100% power usage and 100% Clock speed, the Water consumption rate is 45 regardless the type of fuel provided. The following types of fuels are accepted:

Generators per Coal node
100% Miner= A 100% Miner on a Coal node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at 100% power usage (decimal amounts of machines means that the last machine needs to be underclocked for maximum efficiency): 250% Miner= A 250% Miner on a Coal node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at 100% power usage (decimal amounts of machines means that the last machine needs to be underclocked for maximum efficiency): Use the following equations: Number of Coal Generators required: Number of Water Extractors required: Spread out the water supply across multiple pipelines as following:
 * Coal burn time is four seconds, which means that a single Coal Generator consumes 15 Coal/min.
 * Pipelines only have a capacity of 300 . Thus, when connecting Water Extractors to a line feeding seven or more Coal Generators, Water inputs either need to be spaced out or be separated.
 * Alternatively, underclock Water Extractors to 75% and connect each of them to exactly two Coal Generators. That way, the amount of Water Extractors is half the amount of Coal Generators.
 * Using Water Extractors underclocked to 75% require an additional extractor for every eight Coal Generators, trading space for ratio simplicity. For eight Coal Generators you either need three Water Extractors at 100% (3*20 = 60 MW) or four Water Extractors at 75% (12.6 * 4 = 50.4 MW). This can be useful early on when you still need to save up on energy consumption on Water Extractors.
 * A Water Extractor has about the same width as two Coal Generators so it would be easier to tile the layout.
 * A Miner Mk.3 on a pure Coal node should only be overclocked to 163%, due to the throughput limit of Mk.5 conveyors.
 * As the Miner and Water Extractors consume power, the net power capacity is less.
 * Water Extractors use about 10% of the gross Power generated. After subtracting 10% from the gross Power, subtract the Power consumption from the Miners, Pipeline Pumps, vehicles, etc. to calculate the net power produced.

Generators fueled by Compacted Coal
This is a simplified version of the table above that do the same calculations for Compacted Coal as input, so only 7.143 items per minute instead of 15 are needed.

Each Assembler operates at 25 parts per minute.

Generators fueled by Petroleum Coke
Burning Petroleum Coke for power can be a great way to deal with Heavy Oil Residue, as long as overflow is handled due to generators burning fuel slower proportionally to power (failing to do so would result in the Coke backing up, subsequently Heavy Oil Residue backing up and then Plastic or Rubber production stopping). One Coal Generator consumes 25 Coke per minute at maximum utilization.

Because the amount of Heavy Oil residue can vary significantly based on what recipes are used, the table below only calculates with Heavy Oil Residue and not Crude Oil.

Overclocking the generator

 * The Coal Generator, like all power generation buildings, behaves differently to power consumer buildings when overclocked. See Clock Speed for more info.
 * As the fuel and water consumption rates are directly proportional to the Power production of Coal Generators (similar also applies to all Power generators), verify that demand matches the production capacity to ensure that Power Shards are used to their full potential.

Coal power setup tutorial
See the pages below for guides. The guide is written based on Rocky Desert starting area, but can also be applicable for other areas with four Coal nodes and with Water nearby.
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3

History

 * Patch 0.3.8.2: Fixed Fluid indicator UI not displaying properly in the Coal Generator
 * Patch 0.3: Now requires Water to operate, appearance changed accordingly to include a Pipeline input. The chimney is now fully within the hitbox.

External link

 * An in-depth guide for Coal and Fuel power

Kohlekraftwerk Générateur à charbon