Game Guides Archive
Thread: Wind Energy vs Solar Energy?
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JoeyNipps
Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:46 am
#1
Hi, another new player question here that I have not been able to find an answer to. In practical terms (I am a simple player just trying to get by in the galaxy) what is the difference between wind energy and solar energy? Is one in some way better when put into a personal harvester than another (if so, how)? Can one harvest more solar than wind for instance? Please give me a clue.
Acantho
Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:54 am
#2
solar generators can generally pull in more power.
BUT because resource spawns fluctuate I would keep both available to you. If ever the sun does not shine so bright... hopefully the wind can be your friend.
The real good stuff comes from the ground though. It's all about fusion
BUT because resource spawns fluctuate I would keep both available to you. If ever the sun does not shine so bright... hopefully the wind can be your friend.
The real good stuff comes from the ground though. It's all about fusion
JoeyNipps
Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:49 am
#3
Another question then. I assume the only stat that matters for energy (wind or solar) is PE. Is this a correct assumption?
sciguyCO
Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:58 am
#4
Power resources (wind, solar, and radioactive) give you more "power units" the higher the PE of the resource goes. For PE < 500, you get one power unit per unit of resource. For PE > 500, you get ( PE / 500) power units perunit of resource. The "power units" are what get displayed when you add power to a harvester. So if you have 1000 units of PE 750 energy, when you go to add power the dialog will show you having 1500 units of power to deposit. After depositing 300 units of power, you will have 800 units of resource remaining in your inventory.
Wind energy seems to have a hard-cap of 500 PE (so it's always 1 unit wind = 1 unit of power). Solar appears to cap at 600 PE (so at best you'd get 1 unit of solar = 1.2 units of power). So from the point of view of powering your harvesters, both of those energy types are roughly equal.
IIRC, wind harvesters have a max BER (base extraction rate: the amount of resources it extracts per minute on a 100% concentration) of 7, solar generators at 9. It also seems to be easier to find high concentrations of solar. So if you have your own generators, you can gather more solar power than wind power.
Now, all that being said, the most efficient power source is going to be radioactive. Each class of radioactive has a different PE cap, with Class 1 radioactive being the lowest (PE in the 500s) and Class 7 being the highest (PE in the 900s). A class 7 radioactive gives you roughly 1.9 units of power for every unit of resource.
In addition to high PE values, fusion generators (the harvesters used to extract radioactive) have the highest BER, and cost the same amount of maintenance as wind or solar generators. BER 13 are pretty common to find, with 14s possible. Fusion gens do have a pretty high initial cost (100-150k on most servers), but they almost always pay for themselves after a week or soof extraction.
So, to compare energy resources first look at the PE: if it's less than 500, it's all identical, if it's higher than 500 the bigger the PE the better. Radioactive will always have better PE than wind, and almost always better than solar. When harvesting your own power, wind generators are easy to get (most artisans make their own), solar generators harvest more (and can be put on higher concentrations), fusion generators are the best (but initially expensive).
That cover everything?
Sedana123
Wed Oct 06, 2004 1:01 pm
#5
/applaud sciguyCO
very comprehensive guide to power 
I'd only like to add that BER 9 Windand BER 10 solar harvesters are possible.
sciguyCO
Wed Oct 06, 2004 10:52 pm
#6
Sedana123 wrote:
/applaud sciguyCO
very comprehensive guide to power
I'd only like to add that BER 9 Windand BER 10 solar harvesters are possible.
Thanks. I haven't used a wind generator since starting up artisan (when it was an awe-inspiring 4 BER), and used a coupleold 7 BER solars until I upgraded to a 13 BER fusion. I wasn't sure about the currentnumbers.
/mood old-man
When I started artisan harvesters were 3/6/9 BER and had no experimentation except for hopper size. Heck, architects couldn't even make medium or heavy flora farms. And we hand-sampled our radioactive power (none of this new-fangled "radation sickness", it's probably just psychosomatic) with no benfit from PE, it was always 1-to-1. We ran out to our harvesters (no mounts or vehicles), uphill (both ways), no terrain negotiation, fighting off rabid herds of durnis with our CDEF pistols, and we were thankful!
Geeze, I feel like I've been doing this far too long.
Now you kids get off my lawn!
/brandish cane
Message Edited by sciguyCO on 10-06-2004 11:53 PM
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