Power generation - the next stage?

[Ieldra]

This is a question for those with encyclopaedic knowledge of mods. I'm looking for options for high-end power generation. For now, I have enough to run all my machines, but I have some long-term plans that require crazy amounts of power. What options are there?

I've looked into several mods. ReactorCraft's Fusion reactor is probably where I want to end up should things go well, but I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle that yet. Big Reactors? Looks fairly cool and has the advantage of outputting RF, but I prefer a setup with less fantastic new ores (unless it's magical power generation, don't know if there is such a thing). IC2 nuclear power? Done that before, wasn't impressed, also power conversion would be a problem. Any other options?

Currently, I'm creating about 5-6 kRF/t with four RoC solar towers (three of them running in a Mystcraft age with eternal day), one Railcraft steam boiler powering 16 TE steam dynamos and 10 compression dynamos running on Forestry Ethanol. What I'm looking for is a way to push my power generation up by an order of magnitude, for all the MFFS and AE crazinesss I'm planning. A high degree of renewability (alternative: extreme fuel efficiency) is desirable.

Note that while I can and will add mods from other ftb packs to my DW20 setup like I did with RoC, I can't update mods to versions which aren't in any ftb pack (like RoC 23). I've tried. It makes the launcher crash. BTW, if someone knows a way around that, I'd like to know.

 

[Wagon153]

Monster has version 23 of the Reika mods but anyway...
I highly suggest using a HTGR Pebble bed from Reactorcraft. Cheap and, if done right, can produce more power in less space then a giant Big Reactor.

 

[Pyure]

In addition to fusion, ReactorCraft also has simpler plants that will generate tons of power. They're a bit more complicated than Big Reactors, but generate way more.

If you're already into RotaryCraft (with your solar towers) you can aim for something even simpler, which is the Gas Turbine. A couple of these will probably generate more power than you'll need for a long time.

Big Reactors is the current "popular" choice. You can generate an awful lot of power without the complexity of a ReactorCraft fission reactor, and there is a lot of info on this forum about the best ways to assemble one.

An automated tree farm, especially if you have MFR or Steve's Carts, is the "old" popular choice. One of these will carry you very comfortably through your midgame via biofuel and charcoal.

 

[Pyure]

Append to last:

For reference on the output of ReactorCraft, I designed a fission reactor yesterday (12 core) that safely outputs around 5.58GW on water (twice that with Ammonia).

5.58GW = ~1,170,000 RF/T.

 

[GreenZombie]

Big Reactors ores are not fantastical. They are uranium and plutonium, and are ore dictionaried as such. They just have quirky names. Like Thermal Expansions platinum, sorry, shiny metal.

 

[Pyure]

Big Reactors ores are not fantastical. They are uranium and plutonium, and are ore dictionaried as such. They just have quirky names. Like Thermal Expansions platinum, sorry, shiny metal.

On that note, I have to admit, it pushes the buttons on my immersion a bit to see "Yellorium". Seems like a pointless quirk. Whereas at least "shiny metal" is a justifiable "real word" description of a substance.

Just me being weird.

 

[Ieldra]

I have to say that the approach of ReactorCraft appeals to me. It retains some of the complexity of real-world nuclear power generation. The problem is that things look a little drab, and I want my stuff to look cool. If it's just a few blocks I can live with it, but for larger structures I care about appearance quite a bit. Too bad there isn't a resource pack patch for this.

@Pyure:
Gas turbines require jet fuel. Continuous production of that may be even more complex than going nuclear. BTW, the output of your reactor would definitely be sufficient. How often do you need to replace fuel rods?

 

[Reika]

On that note, I have to admit, it pushes the buttons on my immersion a bit to see "Yellorium". Seems like a pointless quirk. Whereas at least "shiny metal" is a justifiable "real word" description of a substance.

Just me being weird.

Agreed.

 

[Ieldra]

Monster has version 23 of the Reika mods but anyway...
I highly suggest using a HTGR Pebble bed from Reactorcraft. Cheap and, if done right, can produce more power in less space then a giant Big Reactor.

Ah, I was on the "recommended" version of Monster, which has the old versions. Let's see if I can update my dw20 setup....

 

[TheAwesomater]

I have to say that the approach of ReactorCraft appeals to me. It retains some of the complexity of real-world nuclear power generation. The problem is that things look a little drab, and I want my stuff to look cool. If it's just a few blocks I can live with it, but for larger structures I care about appearance quite a bit. Too bad there isn't a resource pack patch for this.

@Pyure:
Gas turbines require jet fuel. Continuous production of that may be even more complex than going nuclear. BTW, the output of your reactor would definitely be sufficient. How often do you need to replace fuel rods?

If you want to go OP for jet fuel just go with magical crops farms. It works for all ingredients, can be harvested with MFR and can be sped up a lot with lily pads of fertility/whatever else you use.

 

[madnewmy]

I have to say that the approach of ReactorCraft appeals to me. It retains some of the complexity of real-world nuclear power generation. The problem is that things look a little drab, and I want my stuff to look cool. If it's just a few blocks I can live with it, but for larger structures I care about appearance quite a bit. Too bad there isn't a resource pack patch for this.

@Pyure:
Gas turbines require jet fuel. Continuous production of that may be even more complex than going nuclear. BTW, the output of your reactor would definitely be sufficient. How often do you need to replace fuel rods?

Make a blaze spawner and a slime spawner for blaze powder and magma cream. Coal well wither skellie spawner but you should have enough of it Ethanol crystal is quite easy to automate, need a sugar cane farm and (if you want) an MFR on harvest leaves mode (I personnaly just go harvest leaves of silverwood/greatwood with it) Netherack and soul sand can be done with a few boring machine in the nether around y=60

oh and they also require some gearbox and possibly lub depending on the version and gearbox you use


Takes a while to get ready, but once you have it, fairly easy!

 

[Ieldra]

About updating RotaryCraft/ReactorCraft: When I try to disable the old versions and enable the new ones taken from Monster 1.1.2 (including DragonAPI), the launcher crashes. I don't even get to load my world and see if it works. This is my dw20 setup to which I added Reika's mods.
The crash report says "Overwriting already-registered Potion am2.buffs.ArsMagicaPotion@18f15c89 @ 35". I guess I need to adjust some config data. Can anyone help?

Edit:
All right, got that out of the way. There's also another error in the config i had to correct. Now to see if my world loads...

 

[madnewmy]

About updating RotaryCraft/ReactorCraft: When I try to disable the old versions and enable the new ones taken from Monster 1.1.2 (including DragonAPI), the launcher crashes. I don't even get to load my world and see if it works. This is my dw20 setup to which I added Reika's mods.
The crash report says "Overwriting already-registered Potion am2.buffs.ArsMagicaPotion@18f15c89 @ 35". I guess I need to adjust some config data. Can anyone help?

ID conflicts nan?

 

[Arakasiii]

i believe changing the ID of "Freeze Potion" in RotaryCraft config rectifies that one, mines at 90, though thats with a modified monster pack and may not work for u

 

[Ieldra]

YAY! Successfully upgraded to RotaryCraft/Reactorcraft v23. Apart from the potion ID conflict (I set the IDs to 81 and 82 as recommended in another thread), there was an issue with molten corium/flowing molten corium apparently having switched their IDs between versions, and there were three ID conflicts in blocks/items I hadn't used so far, and I need to rebuild my magnetostatic engines which I expected since they now come tiered, and my old ones got converted into the basic version.

 

[Ieldra]

And now...how the heck do I upgrade my magnetostatic engines? I could find nothing in the new in-game manual.

 

[Padfoote]

And now...how the heck do I upgrade my magnetostatic engines? I could find nothing in the new in-game manual.

Check NEI for the upgrades.

 

[Geometry]

And now...how the heck do I upgrade my magnetostatic engines? I could find nothing in the new in-game manual.

You need to craft upgrades ranging from tier 1 to 5, and then right click them on to the engine. Refer to here for more information: http://rotarycraft.wikia.com/wiki/Magnetostatic_Engine

 

[Pyure]

... BTW, the output of your reactor would definitely be sufficient. How often do you need to replace fuel rods?

Not 100% sure; I've never timed it. I've seen a single uranium pellet-per-core in a 7-core reactor last somewhere around an hour. I suspect it will last considerably less in a 12-core reactor.

A core can hold 4 pellets each; only one pellet is "loaded and being used" at a time. You can likely feed the cores via hoppers or other piping system if such floats thy boat.

And now...how the heck do I upgrade my magnetostatic engines? I could find nothing in the new in-game manual.

Look up the word "tier" in NEI. And I believe if you mouseover each tier in NEI it will give you an idea of the requirements if anything special is going on (one requires magnetizing for instance)

Edit: Regarding gas turbine fuel; yeah it has a lot of ingredients, but they aren't too hard to farm and they don't get consumed each time fuel is created. And frankly watching the fuel be created is kinda fun

 

[Ieldra]

Regarding the engine upgrades: I see. I was confused since the icons of the upgrade in NEI (and the inventories) are almost invisible in my game.