Artisan Archive

Do you think a business could be started around selling wind energy. If so what prices should the energy be sold at?

Sure, at some price it will work. But here are your challenges -

1) Wind isn't very useful in crafting. It is useful for harvesting, so you have a limited potential customer base

2) Most people who harvest, harvest their own wind (since if you're going to harvest anyway, why not wind as well?)

3) Wind moves. Sure, other resources move, but often you have a chance to leave your harvester where it is and harvest a sub-optimal, but pretty decent component. With wind, you need to move the harvester and accept the hassle and lost maintenance that this entails. Of course, that is also a potential bonus - it's a hassle for everyone else too.

Perhaps the market is players who harvest from a static location. They never want to bother moving harvesters - they just want to pay maintenance, collect the product, and occasionally shift production. They might be buyers of energy. I doubt you'll anything like 5 credits per wind resource though. Still, you could make some money if their is a market, and your maintenance would be relatively easy as you could locate all of your harvesters in one spot and maintain them en masse and move them en masse. Easy than moving a harvester of each type to an optimal location after a shift.

I make quite a bit of money selling wind energy. Prices vary by server and planet, where I am most sell between 3-2 creds per resourse. And HappyMob is right about the wind market (although I haven't had a problem with resourse shifts yet). Wind can have big ups and downs. Some days it sells as soon as it hits the market, others....... you can forget it. If I was you I'd diversify a into other resourses as well. That way you aren't dependand on one resourse selling. If wind doesn't sel fine sell petro. Petro stops selling Aluminum may sell like hotcakes. You get the idea.

I started selling my excess energy when I first threw up some harvesters, but now I have just enough wind to keep my harvesters running. I'm sure others are in my predicament and at times wind will be a very valuable resource to people who need it in a pinch.

I currently have 7 solar generators, and I haven't had a problem selling my power.

A few things to keep in mind.

1. On the bazaar you can get away with at least 2 cr per unit, maybe 3. People who buy power from the bazaar are usually in a pinch and need power NOW. Take advantage of that. In a populated city like Theed or Coronet power flies off the bazaar at 2 cr a unit.

2. Sell for less if you sell in bulk, I go with 1.5 cr a unit. If you see someone clean you out on the bazaar, send them an e-mail. Try to find some steady clients who buy power from you instead of make it.

3. There are real advantages to selling power over resources. Everyone who runs anything needs power. Not everyone will need your low grade ore. Even if people have their own generators, wind shifts, and they'll probably need a bit here or there every once in a while. Power generators are more efficient than their harvestor brothers, so you can make more power than you can resources. Power is cheaper to make. Resources are at about .6 cr per unit, power is .4 if you use wind, less if you use solar or fusion. There are many things to keep track of in resources. OQ, CO, UT etc. etc. Some schematics need this, some need that. But power is power. It's all basically thesame. If something shifts on you, you spend about 30 minutes (maybe less) searching for new wind, while a miner will spend a long time in search of good stuff or just start pulling up crap.

4. Keep in mind, and constantly remind people of, the following:

Personal harvestors use 600 power a day. They produce (if in a good spot) about 2400 (critique this number if you want, it's ball park) resources a day. Those resources sell for 3 cr (or much more on the bazaar) a unit for a total of about 7200 cr a day. Let's say you use 2 lots for wind generators. That's 2 lots you could use on harvestors. You're probably not selling much power, so effectively you're losing 14400 cr A DAY. At 600 power per harvestor you would need 6000 units of power a day to run 10. If you buy power for 1.5 cr a unit that's only 9000 cr a day. Toss in that your harvestors have cheaper maintenance and you actually end up with 6840 extra credits a day if you buy power instead of make it.

I have seen a variety of prices, but when needful I have always been able to buy it at 2cr/unit.

Given the prices I can charge for metals, especially ones that shift off the server, I think this is a poor option.

If you have extra power, sell it off, but I dont think I would make a business of it.

Regards,

Artuk

You have to keep in mind though that power is cheaper to make, and you can make more of it.

Also it's far less time intensive because there's less to think about and look for.

Can you make more money selling metal? Yes. But not quite as much more as you might think, and you'll have more time to do other things.

I'd also like to point out that while the higher level harvestors have higher maintenance and power costs, all the generators have a constant 30 maintenance rate.

So you can run a fusion generator for the same cost as a wind.

The implications are obvious. By the time you get up to fusion you can make power for next to nothing. Anything you sell is pure profit.

Beg borrow or steal an Ion Gen... they rock

Now run it as long as you can till the wind/solar/radioactive run out...then place it on the bazzar for 2-3cr a unit and clean up

Thanks for all the replies! Has anyone made a miner guide? I would like to know what the best types of resources to mine are, and what stats to look for. I have seen various posts saying look for OQ or .... but it is still a bit confusing.

Just to complement what others have said, the numbers for specializing in power generation are very good. If you sell for 2 cr/unit on the bazaar you will make plenty of money. As others have mentioned, give discounts for bulk purchases, and be willing to deliver to your regular customers.

You may have to start with wind generators if your funds are low, but move up to solar as soon as possible. Don't bother with a vendor location, use all 10 lots to generate power. To sell sizable amounts of power, you will most likely have to go to the client anyways, so a vendor probably woundn't be as useful as it is for a weaponsmith, armorsmith, etc.

Then, when you have the money, start upgrading to Fusion Generators. With a Fusion Generator you could probably sell for 0.50 cr/unit and still make a great amount of profit (though I don't recommend selling that low unless you have to or unless someone is buying a lot of power from you).

Slim Vargo, Corbantis, Mos Eisley (five solar generators and growing fast, send me an e-mail if you need power)

In fact, running some numbers by SWGCRAFT, I've found that if you compare fusion to heavy harvestors, if you sell power at 1.5 cr a unit and metal at 3 cr a unit, you end up with about the same profit if you are on a similar concentration.