Solar Power :: Surplus daytime power should go to batteries

[Captain Australia]

I really don't get the whole "no solar power at night" logic, it just seems silly to me.

Yes, okay, solar power plants should not generate power at night time, but why could they not still distribute power from the batteries ?

The logic here is game-breaking (at least with regard to using solar power in any meaningful way).

According to the game measures (lets not bother with real world logic), let's say:

- my city requires 100 MW power supply
- I generate 200 MW power supply using solar farms
- the surplus should be stored for night-time (less demand) distribution

Yes, I know the night-time hot-spots open at night, lights are on all around the city .. but massive sectors of residential, industrial & commercial zones are also using NO power, so over-all I'd argue that night-time consumption would be lower.

The problem is, the game has this artificial day/night logic, but it doesn't look at supply over time, instead of 100MW required above, it needs to be 100MW per hour, or per day or whatever, so that the game could calculate and accrue a surplus (up to a limitation based on batteries per solar farm).

What I would like to see is something like this:

- Solar farms produce less power overall (that's fine, I dont mind needing a massive area and investment into solar power)
- each solar farm has a certain amount of storage (if you produce power in surplus)
- surplus power is drawn on in brown-outs and low power times (so if you rely solely on solar power the entire night time duration is lower power).
- that surplus power logic applies to other kinds of power plants as well, but maybe they have lesser storage than solar which must be efficient in storage by necessity

You'd have to produce a significant surplus at day-time for solar power to provide for your city, but if you put the money, planning and sheer amount of space into it, you could do it.

Just my random gripe, two cents worth ?

I'm not an electrical engineer or any shiz like that, it just seems illogical to me that a city that has invested in solar energy would just suddenly have devices city-wide dying the minute the sun goes down. I'd go so far as to say ridiculous ?

[Captain Australia]

I think the game lacks a depth of data .. it's pretty .. and I do really like it, and it feels complex .. but I want to see stuff like ...

.. power demand by time of day
.. number of educated and uneducated citizens versus vacant job slots optimal for that demographic
... data, graphs, data and more graphs .. the little [ ! ] icon and it's threadbare data doesnt do it for me ..

[loverevolutionary]

I'd love to see someone mod in battery banks that required power during the day, but produced it at night.

[Excrucian]

There's a mod already that makes it so your solar power plant keeps working at night, like pre-AD

[Romeo Deluxe]

Not using any mods since I still have plenty of Achievements to do. I bulldozed my Solar Power, especially after I got the Nuclear Plant. Just stick with Oil Refinery or the Advanced Wind Power buildings until you can get Nuclear.

[Excrucian]

There's also a mod that makes it so achievements still unlocks and it works ;)

[Mansen]

Originally posted by loverevolutionary:

I'd love to see someone mod in battery banks that required power during the day, but produced it at night.

Overcomplicated and entirely superfluous when we have things like...

Originally posted by Excrucian:

There's a mod already that makes it so your solar power plant keeps working at night, like pre-AD

You're essentially asking Colossal to make the game run even slower - just so you can simulate nighttime batteries (They don't exist on the scale you want them to either for that sake)

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by loverevolutionary:

I'd love to see someone mod in battery banks that required power during the day, but produced it at night.

I would love a mod or more a vanilla building that creates powerbanks that charge when you have surplus but gives away as fast your production falls bellow what you need.. Not day night controlled.

Originally posted by Mansen:

Overcomplicated and entirely superfluous when we have things like...

How can that be overcomplicated?

[B✪✪tsy]

The (vanilla) sim/game contains many small flaws yet it's still the best city sim out there!!1!!

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Zefnoly:

How can that be overcomplicated?

It's entirely superfluous - There is no reasonable reason to want to implement a made up battery system for a power plant that already functions at night.

It's more code with no added payoff - You might as well fool the player into believing there's a battery by faking simple numbers.

[bla123bla123]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Originally posted by loverevolutionary:

I'd love to see someone mod in battery banks that required power during the day, but produced it at night.

Overcomplicated and entirely superfluous when we have things like...

Originally posted by Excrucian:

There's a mod already that makes it so your solar power plant keeps working at night, like pre-AD

You're essentially asking Colossal to make the game run even slower - just so you can simulate nighttime batteries (They don't exist on the scale you want them to either for that sake)

Actually, 'nighttime' batteries might not exist on the scale that is being asked for, but other alternative energy storing systems do exist and are in use. One example is compressed air energy storage. There are a couple facilities in the world that do this. There is one in Germany that stores 290MW and one in Alabama that stores 110MW so they can store the amount of energy he wants.

http://energystorage.org/compressed-air-energy-storage-caes

[Mansen]

Alternative systems aren't batteries however - And they again cause bloat where it doesn't need to be. The Solar plant worked just find before AD, no superfluous features or anything.

People are asking colossal to implement a battery mechanic for the sole purpose of a power plant that already runs at night because of how the production works - in real life.

[ROBINO]

batteries that store MWhours do not exist

that's future tech

[CellNav]

Originally posted by human beings are global cancer:

batteries that store MWhours do not exist

that's future tech

Yes, that is correct, so C:S did it right.

Originally posted by Captain Australia:

- my city requires 100 MW power supply
- I generate 200 MW power supply using solar farms
- the surplus should be stored for night-time (less demand) distribution

If players want to simulate batteries then then can use the mod that runs the solar power plant at night, however, the inital cost and maintenance should be higher ... for example ....

Since day/night cycles are 14 days (2 weeks) then it means that the batteries are putting out up to 160 Mw per game night. If the initial cost of a battery is like 10k, then you're looking at the initial cost of 220,000 cim bucks to plop a solar power plant (80k + 140k), and perhaps maybe a 10% extra maintenance cost (or what ever).

Basically, there's no need for a complicated mod (IMO). Since power comsumption "may" drop at night (assuming no leisure district), the player adjusts the budget to spit out less power from the grid ... i.e. 50% budget = 80 Mw output of the solar plant, meaning it is providing 80 Mw per night.

Yeah, energy is stored in the batteries when you need it ... If your plant has 160 Mw stored but your budget is set to 50%, then you have 80 Mw of stored energy to use when you need it. If you keep you budget at 100% at night then your are using 100% of the stored energy per night cycle.

That make any sense?

[Hawk Tuah]

Here's an option. Build some incinerators. Then raise your garbage collection to 150% at night and lower to 50% during the day. The incinerator will generate more power at night and less power during the day. This offsets what's going on with the solar power plant. This will also send your garbage trucks out at night when there is less traffic.

[Secret Stealth SWAT Squad⭕⃤]

Originally posted by Captain Australia:

I think the game lacks a depth of data .. it's pretty .. and I do really like it, and it feels complex .. but I want to see stuff like ...

.. power demand by time of day
.. number of educated and uneducated citizens versus vacant job slots optimal for that demographic
... data, graphs, data and more graphs .. the little [ ! ] icon and it's threadbare data doesnt do it for me ..

I love me some graphs as well, i think Simcity3k had the best graph system of any city game; it had line, bar and chart graphs with realistic %s and advisory help to see what was really wrong.

Dont get me wrong I by far love C:S to death especially after the newest simcity incident, but 3k had great graphs and advisors, new 2013simcity had great civil buildings and civil building upgrades, simcity4 had great budgeting.

Originally posted by Forkboy22:

Here's an option. Build some incinerators. Then raise your garbage collection to 150% at night and lower to 50% during the day. The incinerator will generate more power at night and less power during the day. This offsets what's going on with the solar power plant. This will also send your garbage trucks out at night when there is less traffic.

I didnt even think of that, I like your idea!