Switching to renewable energies

[Whatthesac]

I'm in the stage of the game where I switch to renewable energies. Coal has been working great for now but as I discover the map I also discover new ways to make energy. One of them is natural gas (that comes from a oil refinery).

It seems like every renewable energy already needs power to work. Take the natural gas generator as an example. it needs a gas pump to pump natural gas into itself to make electricity. Same goes for almost everything except maybe solar panels and steam generator.

How can I power the pump without a coal generator? Is it even possible?

[Angpaur]

You can use manual generators to kick start other systems.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

Originally posted by Whatthesac:

It seems like every renewable energy already needs power to work. Take the natural gas generator as an example. it needs a gas pump to pump natural gas into itself to make electricity.

After it starts running, gas pipes or generators can be set up so that the pump is powered first, then any excess gas/power is sent towards the rest of the base.

Though depending on the geyser and it's 'strength', you could even connect a steam box & turbine as to generate power.

[Fardy McShiddpants]

The amount of power needed to run your renewable power systems isn't 0 but it will be less than the power you produce unless you have things set up inefficiently, which can be pretty easy to do until you play around with things a little and get a handle on it.

That said you don't necessarily need to get rid of your coal generators. You can just have them as emergency generators, connected to their own battery (on the same circuit as all the others so it has the same level of charge) but have them turn on only when your other generators fail to fill the battery. This is how you should be doing it mid game anyways: hydrogen generators first (since you need to get rid of hydrogen anyways) then coal generators as backup.

[Whatthesac]

Originally posted by Angpaur:

You can use manual generators to kick start other systems.

Does this really work?

[cswiger]

Originally posted by Whatthesac:

Does this really work?

Sure-- often, you only need to kickstart one 240W pump.

Just make sure the manual generator is on a circuit which also has a battery.

[Makkenhoff]

Most of my bases I've made, have been a real pain to make renewable; getting glass is usually the part that makes me crazy. It's always what you've got in the main base regardless of what start you select, but I'm usually forced to have manual generators on standby because at some point or another, one of my renewables will hit a snag that requires me to jump-start the process again.

[some moron]

Natural Gas is not a "renewable energy". There is a set amount of it in the earth and when we remove all that it will be thousands of years or longer before the gas is replaced.

[Whatthesac]

Originally posted by some moron:

Natural Gas is not a "renewable energy". There is a set amount of it in the earth and when we remove all that it will be thousands of years or longer before the gas is replaced.

What about geysers?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by some moron:

Natural Gas is not a "renewable energy". There is a set amount of it in the earth and when we remove all that it will be thousands of years or longer before the gas is replaced.

It's renewable in the game.

[MaebeKnot]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by some moron:

Natural Gas is not a "renewable energy". There is a set amount of it in the earth and when we remove all that it will be thousands of years or longer before the gas is replaced.

It's renewable in the game.

Yep, coal is also considered a renewable resource.

[some moron]

Hmm darn it I guess those are both right. Not in real life, but yes in game.
I thought about it and I guess when we in the real world say "renewable" energy I think we mean a constant flow of energy that can be harnessed, for example sunlight and wind which for now are unending (in their cycles). Notice they are not fuels that must be burned, but rather converted into electricity without generating heat (besides the frictions of bearings etc). This is different from fuel which must be burned and generates heat and is finite in easily accessible form ie oil gas uranium.
Okay then that leaves the question is there any energy source in ONI that is NOT renewable and I think the answer is "no".
Is there any energy source in the real life that is renewable and I would say "no". In theory all the matter in the universe can be used as fuel. In fact that is what is happening to generate the solar and ancillary wind. According to entropy, there is no such thing as "renewable". But of course we say that meaning "within our lifetime". Because the resources are of course all reset from the big bangs. Which leads to the obvious conclusion that real life really IS ONI.