Solar + Batteries VS Wind

[KDubya]

This is based on watching youtube, don't have the game yet.

As the title says which is better? Primarily in the early game/first dome.

The you tubers seem to use an awful lot of wind and then constantly have problems getting enough machine parts as they take them to both build and maintain. They do function day and night and do better in dust storms.

Solar looks really inexpensive as only needing metal to build and maintain, but they don't work at night or in dust storms. Batteries look like they take polymers to build and maintain.

So it looks like in a dust storm heavy area the obvious choice is wind, otherwise it seems like the deciding factor would be is it easier to make polymers or machine parts? Polymers just need workers while machine parts need metal so you'd need a mine as well.

Starting off it looks like getting enough people to cover basic support (diner/infirmary/security), food, and research doesn't leave much left. Adding a polymer factory would take less than adding both a mine and a machine part factory.

Later on if you got the atomic storage battery thing that'd let you replace a bunch of batteries with them. Then after you get more domes and infrastructure you could add tunnels and get to higher elevation and then put in lots of highly efficient wind power.

Good idea or not?

 

[Beric]

From what I have seen almost everything requires polymer anyway, whereas this is less true for machine parts. As such I would think that going solar +batteries (lots of batteries, so that you can survive several days without power) and getting an early polymer factory would be superior. Just don't forget to get that transport rover and get on with the surface mining to support your solar panel repairs.

 

[Lt Loco]

There's certainly a balancing act. You will want solar because it is so cheap. I see a lot of streamers over-doing the wind power and suffering with the maintenance - but the higher the risk of dust storm, the more you want wind power. The larger your population, I suspect machine parts will come out ahead. I don't know how many machine parts 1 unit of metal makes, but I'm guessing it's more than 1.

My intention is to have enough wind power to power my first dome, water extraction, and a subsurface heater. Everything else either runs on solar-battery or turns off at night. Until I know any better, I'll assume to continue that for every dome.

My current strategy is detailed here, but for now I'm assuming that I won't *need* batteries until after my first dome. So I'm not really even bothering to take many. I'll send enough polymers for a dome and a good while of maintenance in the second ship, and plan on just powering things down at night to limit my machine part maintenance.

 

[Zatetic]

wind turbines are far more efficient because of elevation bonus and massive upgrade potential (bringing them to a max of 26.6 energy per turbine). I think an early stirling generator is a better way to go. Keep it closed, 10 power is enough for 1 water extractor and 1 fuel depot. Then bang 1 solar on a concrete extractor as separate circuit. From there you should focus on wind turbines.

 

[spannbeton]

How about packing in some probes and landing on the high elevation. Wind upgrade is multiplicative with elevetion bonus. Basicly a no brainer to go wind unless you play on very hard and might have supply issues. but even then wind turbines might still be the better option given the massive output and not shutting down so often. especially dust storms.

 

[Wenatchee Willie]

I wonder if higher elevations are more prone to meteor strikes?

 

[Beric]

I wonder if higher elevations are more prone to meteor strikes?

Not sure why they would be.

The only place on Mars safe from a meteorite is underground - for example in a cave.

 

[Wenatchee Willie]

Not sure why they would be.

The only place on Mars safe from a meteorite is underground - for example in a cave.

Not sure why they would be.

The only place on Mars safe from a meteorite is underground - for example in a cave.

I think you confused what I meant....are structures at higher elevations more likely to get struck, because the meteor is more likely to still be a meteor the higher it is?

 

[Beric]

I think you confused what I meant....are structures at higher elevations more likely to get struck, because the meteor is more likely to still be a meteor the higher it is?

From what I can tell in the game the different elevations are a few hundred meters apart at most - not sure why that would make a huge difference to a meteorite surviving or not surviving.

 

[KDubya]

The Sterling generator looks to be really expensive to buy and looks to be really expensive to build. Ten power is the same as two large solar panels which are nearly free. Once you open up you get really expensive maintenance and only gain another ten which again can be replaced with another two nearly free solar panels. Maybe late game when resources are inconsequential and you have some upgrading techs Sterlings will be great but early on it looks too expensive.

Wind looks to be so much better at the high elevation that I'd like to save them for installing on a higher plateau. Maybe install a few for emergency purposes.

This is all predicated on a start that does not have massive dust storm potential, in a place like that wind is the obvious better choice. Meteors and cold waves should be OK with heavy solar + batteries, just need enough redundancy to handle meteor losses and enough capacity to brute force through a cold wave until you get the heater tech.

Also this would be based on the first dome being for research, polymer plant and society needs like infirmary, diner and hopefully an actual farm. The play-throughs I've seen where they try to have a polymer plant, machine shop factory, electronics factory and some mining all in the same small dome just don't have enough people to staff the positions. Maybe make the second dome for kids and more research then make mining domes.

 

[starkaos]

If a person is concerned with the maintenance fees for Wind Turbines, then it is likely the maintenance for cables is also a concern even though it just takes Metal. So would dedicated power network (1 solar panel connected to 1 Concrete Excavator) or connecting everything together be better? The drawback for dedicated power networks is that it makes the overall power generation of the colony pointless, but having a power fault in one network won't affect the other networks unless there is a programming error.

Also this would be based on the first dome being for research, polymer plant and society needs like infirmary, diner and hopefully an actual farm. The play-throughs I've seen where they try to have a polymer plant, machine shop factory, electronics factory and some mining all in the same small dome just don't have enough people to staff the positions. Maybe make the second dome for kids and more research then make mining domes.

Some players just need a Machine Parts Factory in their first dome due to going crazy with all the Wind Turbines they create and only having 1 or 2 rockets. For Hard mode, Wind Turbines should be a midgame building.

 

[duckforceone]

the way i look at it.
Solar panels - half the time, they don't produce power due to sun. And they cannot produce during sand storms either. And they require batteries. And of course the polymer factory can be built anywhere.
Wind requires nothing but a way to get machine parts. And machine parts primarily require metal. So it's easy to setup and get running. But later in game, it might be more difficult to get metal once things start running out.

 

[Holce]

the way i look at it.
Solar panels - half the time, they don't produce power due to sun. And they cannot produce during sand storms either. And they require batteries. And of course the polymer factory can be built anywhere.
Wind requires nothing but a way to get machine parts. And machine parts primarily require metal. So it's easy to setup and get running. But later in game, it might be more difficult to get metal once things start running out.

Solar panel work 66% of the time. It seems that night only cover the third work shift. You need three times more Solars panels than turbins panel and 1 batery. If you have half the amount of surplus at day than at night, your are not losing energy. Turbine have a research that boost their production by 33%. They will produce twice the amount of a solar panel (without elevation bonus). Solar panel have a research that clean them from dust when closed, reducing maintenance.

In the long run, turbines are better. They cost 1 machin parts and need 0.5 for maintenance. The machine part factory produce 12 per day (3 work shift) for 1 metal. The factory need 30 power. The prefab cost 400M. To build the factory you need 10 concrete, 10 metal and 2 electronics. Electronics cost 20M each. So by building the first one you get 360 more cash. It is 20 machin parts. So if you don't use a lot of wind turbins you may be able to gain cash and have more people for other stuff.

Not builing the factory save you a lot of cash, make it possible to focus more on research and having baby. You need less power and don't need as much wind turbins at first. But of course you may be more vulnerable to dust storm. Using Solars panel and battery is a quicker start at the cost of more vunerability. But because your first dome use twice as less power, your bateries will last longer. I think both path are valid.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

The actual answer to that question is Stirling Generators, because they are maintenance free and a great investment throughout the whole game (given that they become even better once you have Scrubbers).

That being said, the choice between solar and wind depends a lot on the map. A resource rich map can easily afford the extra metal maintenance, while a high elevation location will get a significant enough boost for the wind turbines to justify their construction.

Going with early Solar Panels also has the annoyance factor of either requiring at least one battery (which needs Polymers for maintenance - a significant cost factor over time) or to deal with shortages during the night. That being said, the latter becomes much less of a factor as your colony grows, given that it is usually a good idea to avoid night shifts unless they are *really* necessary, which means there will be a big power demand discrepancy between day and night.