Question about power

[Starcake]

Hey folks,

I just found a really pretty moon which I want to live on. The problem is that I found no power hotspots for it, only gas and mineral. I spent about 40 minutes going everywhere to try to find one but got not result.

So with that in mind, is it viable to build a base using only solar panels + battery? I never really used solar energy in the game and always looked for a hotspot before building my bases, so I don't know how well it works, and if it's powerful enough to keep a full base running 24/7 without having blackouts lol.

Also, is it possible that a moon or planet exists with no energy hotspot at all? Or was I just very unlucky and should keep looking?

Thanks in adavance for the help.

[Askey]

I would like to know the answers to this question, I haven't tried running a base purely on solar power. Also, I have never experienced finding a lack of power hotspots.

In theory the solar panels should store enough energy in the batteries while its dark. I would suggest playing around on creative with solar panels and batteries to build a base just to give you a better idea.

[SolOmen]

Each solar is worth 50 during peak hours and 25 in dim light. 4 solar will produce 200 during peak hours which is enough for a sizable base. 2 batteries should be able to cover the dark hours unless the planet has long nights.

[Deadmeat Jones]

I've got an aerial base, living right up in the cloud layers (I swear, the clouds weren't there when I started). My base has a power draw of roughly 750kP. I planted solar panels in the outlying structures with nice big glass windows. As it turns out, the window factor doesn't actually matter, solar panels even work underground (presently). My power generation is in the 900-1000 kP range, and I've got 1.9M worth of battery storage, I converted one of my empty lower deck/engineering rooms to purely battery storage. Due to nature of actual construction setup, it took me 2-3 day/night cycles before I had everything working as intended, but it is now quite well self-supporting. Even managed to work in a pair of short-range teleporters to travel from the pilot's lounge down into the engineering area.

Can't imagine I'll bother with more power generation unless I move forward with redesigning a few levels (don't really need stairs with teleport systems in place) to fully flesh out the greenhouse designs.

[Askey]

Would love to see pictures for this .

[mundy.]

I have only built bases using solar energy, its pretty OK Id say...
I build a powerhouse somewhere in my base, a tower made of 3 or more rooms and a biodome on top (just for looks). I set up about 20~ solar panels inside the bio dome and build batteries inside the rooms below.
It might not be worth it if you're building a HUGE base, bacuse then you'll have to build a lot more powerhouses to keep it powered.
Its not as great as electromagnetic generators, but you can build a solar-powered base anywhere you want.

I also have found no hotspots on moons, guess they're pretty rare.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926425217
Here's a picture of my outpost, completely powered by solar panels and batteries.

On the 4 highest biodomes I have a set of solar panels, and have about 32 batteries in total, around 3 mil kP stored in the batteries, so far it never ran out of power.

[jjh76]

Solar panels work anywhere as long as it's daytime, even when inside buildings or deep underground. The although they use more resources to build, glass cuboids are the only prefab units that don't have internal lighting and so don't use power. You can put 4 batteries or solar panels into one cube and they will snap in place and connect to the power grid without needing to use electric cables. So a glass power cube will only add 5 objects towards the base building limit instead of 8 using wires to connect them.

To avoid cluttering up the scenery, I would dig down to the bedrock and build a 5x5 grid of glass cubes to start out. Use one cube for a short range teleporter connected to your base on the surface - to get it to fit you'll need to put another cube on top of it, but you can delete the extra cube after the teleport is set down. Use two solar panels for each battery to make sure that the batteries get fully charged.

Once you've got it set up, use a cable to connect one cube to something on the surface which will then be your main power distribution center. You can then use the terrain manipulator to fill in the hole you made to get down there.

If your base ends up needing more power later on, just teleport down and add more cubes.

[Gumsk]

Yes, you can run a base on just solar. I believe for every 100 kPs of total base needs, you need 4 panels and 2 batteries

A lot of things you can put on proximity switches, like teleporters and storage, then they won't draw any power. You can even create sections of base and shut parts down when you don't need them; just put an air gap between one section and the first room of the next section, run a wire to a wall switch in the powered section, then over to the unpowered.

Really, you only need extractors working while you are gone, anyway, and they aren't usually inside the base buildings, so you could just shut down the whole thing when you leave and let the batteries charge up.

[Starcake]

Wow, alright, thank you very much all for the answers. I just really liked this moon and was so disappointed when I found no power hotspots lol. I suppose I'll take this project ahead since solar energy is viable then. I just asked because I didn't want to start something and pour hours into it only to discover it doesn't work, lol.

Also, awesome base, Mundy!

[Gumsk]

When the modding tools get updated more for Synthesis and Beyond Basebuilding gets updated, I recommend using that to shrink everything down to minimum size (1/8 size I think), then you can fit a lot more into one space. I think you'd have to use cables then, though, since they wouldn't be snapped.

However, there should be EM somewhere around you. I don't know of anything saying moons can't have power, but the RNG could make a particular location difficult.

[mundy.]

Originally posted by Starcake:

Wow, alright, thank you very much all for the answers. I just really liked this moon and was so disappointed when I found no power hotspots lol. I suppose I'll take this project ahead since solar energy is viable then. I just asked because I didn't want to start something and pour hours into it only to discover it doesn't work, lol.

Also, awesome base, Mundy!

Thanks! :D

[Deadmeat Jones]

Originally posted by Askey:

Would love to see pictures for this .

Not the best pics, but I snapped these after I saw this message.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926479296
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926479382
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926479131
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926478883

After taking these, I realized my old indicator lamps on the structure weren't being illuminated, so I'll have to go through and run wires to all of those. A tad tricky with where some of them are positioned at the bottom.

[Starcake]

Thank you for the examples, Jones! Your base also looks really awesome! You know, this all makes me think that I DO like the power system, I just wish the power was wireless or that the wires looked more organized without us having to hide the mess underground. I think it would add the extra power feature without all the convoluted wiring mess, especially how doors work now. Thank you all for the clear examples and tutorials.

[Gumsk]

If you aren't against using mods, there's one that can either dim them or make them invisible. I think it's called subtle power lines.

[Deadmeat Jones]

Originally posted by Starcake:

I just wish the power was wireless or that the wires looked more organized without us having to hide the mess underground.

It is (mostly) wireless, if you're using large(or small) structures, not the wood/metal/concrete buildings and such. Any location where solar panels/batteries snap-in automatically link in, and all of the tunnel pieces have wires running along them for current conveyance.

The short-range teleporter 'cable' is more of an energy beam once linked.

[MockTwo61]

Have to make a grid.. the tall silo in the middle is just that a silo full of batteries... the grid runs to the silo... Runs to the farms

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1926752946