What is best energy source? - 2024 version

[Aderod]

I wonder which of the buildings that generate electricity is the most efficient?

[KhanWolf95]

Honestly I found the tidal wave building from the recent dlc more efficient as you can dedicate a strip of water to build and work mode/upgrades works better.

[joeball123]

"Best" and "most efficient" depend on what metrics you're interested in, and may further vary with upgrades and budget setting. The Tidal Power Station that KhanWolf95 mentions, for example, is likely to score well on space utilization - a 5x4 footprint for a nominal 260 MW output isn't bad, especially given that it's using water tiles - and is also likely to perform relatively better on lower budget settings since both its upgrade and its alternate work mode modify the Efficiency statistic rather than base power output, but on the other hand four workers, a $300/month nominal operating budget, and a $14,000 construction cost is also a bit expensive for only 260 MW nominal output.

There are also some complications if you want to do more than just a surface-level cost analysis. Power Plants and Nuclear Power Plants have hidden costs related to fuel production and transportation, but also offer some advantages when playing with Reclaimers; the abstract wealth model that the game uses to determine eligibility for certain services and housing has some interesting implications for offsetting operating costs through rents and service fees; an "inefficient" but inexpensive power plant (e.g. a Wind Turbine built on the lowest ground level) may be circumstantially better than a more efficient but more expensive power plant when you only need a fraction of the generally-superior power plant's capacity; et cetera.

[Tsuichoi]

What Joe said. A teamster’s shift ought not be wasted on coal or uranium power plants if avoidable. If you have wind turbines at the highest elevation with the researched work mode on and Elon Gates at 5 stars working as your “green engineer”, you will have no shortage of electricity and that requires no workers or resources mind you, just upkeep.

It would be nice if there were an option for geothermal like in 5 I believe.

Oh and don’t forget the fusion reactor. It costs a lot yes, and requires college educated workers, but no resources.


If you have a more specific question related to a mission, map or game mode, that might help us help you also.

[Aderod]

I never was fan of wind turbines, you need to put them in high ground for good energy output, I need to try off shore version, are those good cost - effect power source?
Coal power is just for WW, then I change to nuclear, prodobly best vanilla game power plant.
Fusion reactor from NF DLC is good, no resources needed, a lot of power and with upgrades additional cash and knowledge from time to time. True cons is high price and requirement of proper "shoreline" but that be avoided by using specific map. May favorite electricity source so far.
I don't have Tropican Shores and I'm curious how effective is new tidal power plant. It's more powerful than solar or less energy but less cost?
I ask this as general question. There is data about power efficiency but that is from 2020(?) just for vanilla buildings. I'm curious how the power plants from dlc look in cost - effect thing.

[joeball123]

Originally posted by Aderod:

I don't have Tropican Shores and I'm curious how effective is new tidal power plant. It's more powerful than solar or less energy but less cost?

As compared to the Solar Power Plant, the Tidal Power Station from Tropican Shores is:
- More expensive in workers, construction cost, and operating cost on a per-MW basis
- More space-efficient (higher output per tile and built on water instead of land)
- Smaller and thus potentially easier to place
- Available an era earlier (Cold War versus Modern)

Originally posted by Aderod:

I never was fan of wind turbines, you need to put them in high ground for good energy output, I need to try off shore version, are those good cost - effect power source?

If I recall correctly, the Offshore Wind Turbine is one of the most expensive power plants in the game on a per-megawatt basis, especially when neglecting hidden and indirect costs (fuel, housing, et cetera). Its primary advantages are that it's an offshore building and that it doesn't need any fuel or staff.

Originally posted by Aderod:

Inuclear, prodobly best vanilla game power plant.

Nuclear may offer the highest output per worker and per tile of any of the staffed power plants, but it also has some fairly significant hidden costs - uranium is worth quite a bit as an export product, your teamsters' time is valuable (especially on an island that has a lot of primary/secondary industry), and between production rates (especially at Waste Treatment Plants with Scrapheap Scrounging) and the unupgraded size of the Nuclear Power Plant's input stockpile teamsters delivering fuel will very often waste a significant fraction of their capacity - and the advantages of making Tropicans any better than Well Off are pretty limited but the Nuclear Power Plant is pretty much guaranteed to make its employees Rich when operated at or above medium budget (and is still pretty likely to make them Rich when running one step below medium budget).

[//MX`]

Oil burn furnace, 1 electric plant, 1 oil rig.