So I have run into a roadblock. On my server I am building a huge city, with plots to separate all the different sections and whatnot. I want to build two powerplants(1 for EU, 1 for MJ) but I am at a loss for creativity when it comes to the design. Anyone got any screenshots or ideas for me? By the way, the two plots for the powerplants are across a 5 wide 'road' from each other, so I could have them connect if that fits into your idea. Also the plots are 33 x 33. Thanks in advance!
PowerPlant Design Help
- Thread starter plzent3r
- Start date
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Are you building this legit, or setting up the city by cheating items in with NEI? If you are cheating them in, GT or advanced solars, has a block that provides infinite EU for use in adventure maps. you can use that to power your city. If you are using the normal sandbox mechanics, you will need a fuel source of some kind. If you are planning to supply lots and lots of power to the city, a 33x33 plot isn't that large unless you went all the way down to bedrock. 
For MJ, the most efficient method is the railcraft boilers. I would recommend using a liquid fuel source like biomass. There are numerous methods for making biomass and converting to biofuel. You could also use a few distilled/refined beed to make oily propolis to turn into buildcraft fuel. That would also be a good option. Bees to refinery to boiler could be made pretty compact. You could expand the number of alvearies depending on the size of the city. It should be completely renewable, and able to be completely automated.
Additional edit:
if you run steam from the boiler, run steam lines to all the plots and give everyone a commercial or industrial steam engine to tap into the MJ power. You can run lots and lots of engines off the steam lines.
Edit:
My current base that I'm building is going to be primarily powered by a 21x21 cane farm running off the old sugar cane farm from forestry. The cane is planted on the new Xycraft soil, so I have a 200% efficiency farm. Every single block is filled, and every tick update counts as two because of the xycraft soil blocks. The cane is converted into compressed plant balls and then into IC2 biofuel cells to burn in diesel generators. I will have 7 of these for a max of 72eu/tick. This is nowhere near enough for a city, but should be sufficient for my stage 1 operations until I add in methane and nuclear.
For MJ, the most efficient method is the railcraft boilers. I would recommend using a liquid fuel source like biomass. There are numerous methods for making biomass and converting to biofuel. You could also use a few distilled/refined beed to make oily propolis to turn into buildcraft fuel. That would also be a good option. Bees to refinery to boiler could be made pretty compact. You could expand the number of alvearies depending on the size of the city. It should be completely renewable, and able to be completely automated.
Additional edit:
if you run steam from the boiler, run steam lines to all the plots and give everyone a commercial or industrial steam engine to tap into the MJ power. You can run lots and lots of engines off the steam lines.
Edit:
My current base that I'm building is going to be primarily powered by a 21x21 cane farm running off the old sugar cane farm from forestry. The cane is planted on the new Xycraft soil, so I have a 200% efficiency farm. Every single block is filled, and every tick update counts as two because of the xycraft soil blocks. The cane is converted into compressed plant balls and then into IC2 biofuel cells to burn in diesel generators. I will have 7 of these for a max of 72eu/tick. This is nowhere near enough for a city, but should be sufficient for my stage 1 operations until I add in methane and nuclear.
Why convert to plantballs instead of running the cane directly? Unless you are using honey or apple juice as a multiplier and have a limited supply then plantballs are a bad deal.
I got 432 biomass for one plantball vs 1152 for 8 cane. Cane took 1800 more mj (1003 vs 2873 used).
No matter how you run it the plantballs will use twice as much materials and about the same power to get the same biomass out.
Edit: both to produce 1296 mb biomass
3 plantballs (24 cane used), 2669 mj used
vs
9 cane directly used, 3213 mj used
Yes, the cane would be much better used directly to make biomass and MJ, but I'm making eu out of it. I don't have the resources yet for a boiler, and I need eu for running GT stuff.
I've created an old warehouse design before, and it might give a power plant a nice feel. I use jungle wood planks for the floor/roof. Throw a railcraft water tank on the roof and a smoke stack, and complete the look. I used netherbrick on for the walls, with infernal brick on the front and a ring around the top.
You sure 1 boiler? Because if 1 can support 36, this will be a game changer.
screenshots?
For EU, you might consider a coal power plant, maybe something similar to this.
Make at least 3 towers with 4 generators on each level so to speak, maybe 12 levels for 480 EU/t from each tower, using a router at the bottom to distribute coal. Then build the towers itself around the generators and put smokers or the twilight forest smoke block on top (is it harvestable? only ever used it in creative).
With three towers, each taking 7x7 and with 3 space in between, you've occupied 27x7 or basically one fourth of the area. On the rest of the area, maybe make a large warehouselike building for production and storage of the charcoal, as well as an open yard. If you want to be ambitious, have the charcoal be produced from wood through two steam ovens powered by a charcoal-based 8LP boiler (it should be enough for full effect, not 100% sure though), and have the wood be transported in with carts from Steve's Carts 2 wood farms rather than MFR farms (though MFR are a LOT more effective and cheap).
Of course I don't know your power requirement; if 480*3 EU/t isn't enough it's easy to add towers or make them higher. If you go with say five towers and 16 high each your production is 5*640 EU/t which isn't bad at all.
Make at least 3 towers with 4 generators on each level so to speak, maybe 12 levels for 480 EU/t from each tower, using a router at the bottom to distribute coal. Then build the towers itself around the generators and put smokers or the twilight forest smoke block on top (is it harvestable? only ever used it in creative).
With three towers, each taking 7x7 and with 3 space in between, you've occupied 27x7 or basically one fourth of the area. On the rest of the area, maybe make a large warehouselike building for production and storage of the charcoal, as well as an open yard. If you want to be ambitious, have the charcoal be produced from wood through two steam ovens powered by a charcoal-based 8LP boiler (it should be enough for full effect, not 100% sure though), and have the wood be transported in with carts from Steve's Carts 2 wood farms rather than MFR farms (though MFR are a LOT more effective and cheap).
Of course I don't know your power requirement; if 480*3 EU/t isn't enough it's easy to add towers or make them higher. If you go with say five towers and 16 high each your production is 5*640 EU/t which isn't bad at all.
Solar "plants" aren't common really, especially not on top of a building, due to requiring quite a lot of space. From the OP I get the feeling that it's going to be "city"-like, and at least have some similarities with the real world. I also got the feeling ze wanted something "cool" rather than "effective". Advanced solars really fall on being boring, and solar "plants" IRL are more like this .
That said, an actual solar plant similar to that, made of factorization solar mirrors and the solar boiler or whatever it's called could be cool.
There are key technical differences between the IC2 solar generators and the Factorization solar generators.
(1) Solar arrays that utilize photovoltaic materials, convert solar energy into electrical energy. The conversion is Solar -> Electrical. The energy from the solar rays excite molecules in the photovoltaic cell, generating a current. I am no expert on photovoltaics, but that's how I understand them to work. This is how IC2 works.
(2) The solar mirror array you linked is a simple concept. By concentrating the reflection of solar light onto one point you can generate a lot of heat. Using that heat you can generate steam and then use that steam to do work. This system turns solar energy into heat energy which is transferred into water. The water is then brought to a higher energy state (steam) which can do large amounts of work when pressurized (Why steam boilers go boom).
We have both types in the world. The former is technologically more advanced and significantly more expensive. Though it should be known that both utilization techniques of solar energy are implemented in society, on both the industrial-commercial and residential fronts.
The former front is obvious. For the latter front, some people choose to have a separate system to heat up their water boiler, where they run water pipes out of their home into an array of mirrors. During the day those mirrors heat up the pipes and generate hot water for them, saving on energy. For photovolatics, it should be obvious that they have them installed on their roofs or something similar.
(1) Solar arrays that utilize photovoltaic materials, convert solar energy into electrical energy. The conversion is Solar -> Electrical. The energy from the solar rays excite molecules in the photovoltaic cell, generating a current. I am no expert on photovoltaics, but that's how I understand them to work. This is how IC2 works.
(2) The solar mirror array you linked is a simple concept. By concentrating the reflection of solar light onto one point you can generate a lot of heat. Using that heat you can generate steam and then use that steam to do work. This system turns solar energy into heat energy which is transferred into water. The water is then brought to a higher energy state (steam) which can do large amounts of work when pressurized (Why steam boilers go boom).
We have both types in the world. The former is technologically more advanced and significantly more expensive. Though it should be known that both utilization techniques of solar energy are implemented in society, on both the industrial-commercial and residential fronts.
The former front is obvious. For the latter front, some people choose to have a separate system to heat up their water boiler, where they run water pipes out of their home into an array of mirrors. During the day those mirrors heat up the pipes and generate hot water for them, saving on energy. For photovolatics, it should be obvious that they have them installed on their roofs or something similar.
U co
u could possibly use steam Solars or hav a small but effective as it is out of sight
