The Coal Generator is a power generator building that generates power by burning 
Coal, 
Compacted Coal or 
Petroleum Coke and 
Water. It is the first fully automated power source the pioneer has access to and also the first source to use a mined resource.
One Coal Generator produces 75 MW at 100% clock speed.
Fuel consumption[]
At 100% clock speed, one Coal Generator consumes 45 m3 Water/min, no matter what fuel is used.
This means 3 Water Extractors will produce enough water for 8 Coal Generators, provided the 300 m3/min throughput limit of the Mk.1 Pipeline isn't exceeded (see below for a layout of possible setups which don't exceed the Pipeline limit).
| Fuel type | Energy (MJ) | Stack size | Stack energy (MJ) | Burn time (sec) | Items per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal |
300 | 100 | 30,000 | 4 | 15 |
| Compacted Coal |
630 | 100 | 63,000 | 8.4 | 7.142857 |
| Petroleum Coke |
180 | 200 | 36,000 | 2.4 | 25 |
Generators per Coal node[]
Use the following equations:
Number of Coal Generators required:
Coal generator = Coal mining rate / 15
Number of Water Extractors required:
Water extractor = Coal generator / 2.6666
Spread out the water supply across multiple pipelines as following:
Pipelines required = Coal generator / 6.6666
- Coal burn time is four seconds, which means that a single Coal Generator consumes 15 Coal/min.
- Pipelines Mk.1 only have a capacity of 300 m3/min. Thus, when connecting Water Extractors to a line feeding seven or more Coal Generators, Water inputs either need to be spaced out or be separated.
- Alternatively, underclock Water Extractors to 75% and connect each of them to exactly two Coal Generators. That way, the number of Water Extractors is half the number of Coal Generators.
- Using Water Extractors underclocked to 75% require an additional extractor for every eight Coal Generators, trading space for ratio simplicity. For eight Coal Generators you either need three Water Extractors at 100% (3 * 20 = 60 MW) or four Water Extractors at 75% (4 * 12.6 = 50.4 MW). This can be useful early on when you still need to save up on energy consumption on Water Extractors.
- A Water Extractor has about the same width as two Coal Generators so it would be easier to tile the layout.
- Pipelines Mk.2 have a capacity of 600 m3/min. Thus up to 13 Coal generators and 5 Water Extractors can be connected to a single Mk.2 Pipeline.
- A Miner Mk.3 on a pure Coal node should only be overclocked to 163%, due to the throughput limit of Mk.5 conveyors.
- As the Miner and Water Extractors consume power, the net power capacity is less.
- Water Extractors use about 10% of the gross Power generated. After subtracting 10% from the gross Power, subtract the Power consumption from the Miners, Pipeline Pumps, vehicles, etc. to calculate the net power produced.
A 100% Miner on a Coal node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at 100% power usage (decimal amounts of machines means that the last machine needs to be underclocked for maximum efficiency):
| Miner | Node purity |
Coal/min | Water Extractors (@ 100%) |
Water Extractors (@ 75%) |
Water m3/min | No. of Coal Generators |
Gross power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | Impure | 30 | 0.75 | 1 | 90 | 2 | 150 MW |
| Normal | 60 | 1.5 | 2 | 180 | 4 | 300 MW | |
| Pure | 120 | 3 | 4 | 360 | 8 | 600 MW | |
| Mk.2 | Impure | 60 | 1.5 | 2 | 180 | 4 | 300 MW |
| Normal | 120 | 3 | 4 | 360 | 8 | 600 MW | |
| Pure | 240 | 6 | 8 | 720 | 16 | 1200 MW | |
| Mk.3 | Impure | 120 | 3 | 4 | 360 | 8 | 600 MW |
| Normal | 240 | 6 | 8 | 720 | 16 | 1200 MW | |
| Pure | 480 | 12 | 16 | 1440 | 32 | 2400 MW |
A 250% Miner on a Coal node can support the following number of Coal Generators operating at 100% power usage (decimal amounts of machines means that the last machine needs to be underclocked for maximum efficiency):
| Miner | Node purity |
Coal/min | Water Extractors (@ 100%) |
Water Extractors (@ 75%) |
Water m3/min | No. of Coal Generators |
Gross power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | Impure | 75 | 1.875 | 2.5 | 225 | 5 | 375 MW |
| Normal | 150 | 3.75 | 5 | 450 | 10 | 750 MW | |
| Pure | 300 | 7.5 | 10 | 900 | 20 | 1500 MW | |
| Mk.2 | Impure | 150 | 3.75 | 5 | 450 | 10 | 750 MW |
| Normal | 300 | 7.5 | 10 | 900 | 20 | 1500 MW | |
| Pure | 600 | 15 | 20 | 1800 | 40 | 3000 MW | |
| Mk.3 | Impure | 300 | 7.5 | 10 | 900 | 20 | 1500 MW |
| Normal | 600 | 15 | 20 | 1800 | 40 | 3000 MW | |
| Pure | 780 |
19.5 | 26 | 2340 | 52 | 3900 MW |
Generators fueled by Compacted Coal[]
This is a simplified version of the table above that do the same calculations for Compacted Coal as input, so only 7.143 items per minute instead of 15 are needed.
Each Assembler operates at 25 parts per minute.
| Coal and Sulfur/min | No. of Assemblers (@100%) |
Compacted Coal/min | Water Extractors (@100%) |
No. of Coal Generators |
Gross power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 2.4 | 60 | 3.15 | 8.4 | 630 MW |
| 120 | 4.8 | 120 | 6.3 | 16.8 | 1260 MW |
| 240 | 9.6 | 240 | 12.6 | 33.6 | 2520 MW |
| 480 | 19.2 | 480 | 25.2 | 67.2 | 5040 MW |
| 780 | 31.2 | 780 | 40.95 | 109.2 | 8190 MW |
Generators fueled by Petroleum Coke[]
Burning Petroleum Coke for power can be a great way to deal with Heavy Oil Residue, as long as overflow is handled (to prevent the Coke from backing up, which would result Heavy Oil Residue backing up and subsequently Plastic or Rubber production stopping). One Coal Generator consumes 25 Coke per minute.
As the amount of Heavy Oil residue can vary significantly based on what recipes are used, the table below only calculates with Heavy Oil Residue and not Crude Oil.
| Heavy Oil Residue/min | No. of Coke Refineries |
Petroleum Coke/min | Water Extractors (@100%) |
No. of Coal Generators |
Gross power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 1 | 120 | 1.8 | 4.8 | 360 MW |
| 100 | 2.5 | 300 | 4.5 | 12 | 900 MW |
| 120 | 3 | 360 | 5.4 | 14.4 | 1080 MW |
| 200 | 5 | 600 | 9 | 24 | 1800 MW |
| 260 | 6.5 | 780 | 11.7 | 31.2 | 2340 MW |
| 300 | 7.5 | 900 | 13.5 | 36 | 2700 MW |
| 400 | 10 | 1200 | 18 | 48 | 3600 MW |
Overclocking[]
The Coal Generator can be overclocked using Power Shards. Overclocking increases the fuel (and Water) consumption rate and produced power linearly. The same amount of power is always produced from the same input resources.
Coal power setup tutorial[]
See the pages below for guides. The guide is written based on Rocky Desert starting area, but can also be applicable for other areas with four Coal nodes and with Water nearby.
Compact Placement[]
Coal Generators can be hard to align when built in two opposing rows fed by a central belt and pipe, due to their large size. However when built right to left, they can be squeezed, down to 8 meters (a foundation width) center-to-center. Make sure not to use the 'snap' mode, only use manual align.
External link[]
Gallery[]
Common setups for Coal Generators respecting the 8:3 ratio, with no throughput limits.
Flow rate analysis of a possible piping setup.
Top view of three Extractors to eight Generators setup, using a common pipeline and two Mk.1 belts, each feed into four generators. The 2 Mk.1 belts can be merged to a single Mk.2 belt.
Several Coal Generators viewed from the front.
A few more Coal Generators, built-in double manifold style.
Coal Generators built above Water Extractors. Each row has nine Generators, fed by two vertical pipes in groups of four. Two vertical pipes are combined at the bottom-fed by three Extractors. The 9th generator has its own individual pipe and Extractor.
Coal running into a Coal Generator in a pre-alpha build of the game.
A setup of 16 Coal Generators on six Water Extractors with Mk.2 Pipelines and one Pipeline Pump per line, no doubled-lines, no redundancies.
History[]
- Patch 0.3.8.2: Fixed Fluid indicator UI not displaying properly in the Coal Generator
- Patch 0.3: Now requires Water to operate, appearance changed accordingly to include a Pipeline input. The chimney is now fully within the hitbox.
See also[]
- Coal
- Compacted Coal
- Petroleum Coke
- Water Extractor
- Biomass Burner
- Fuel Generator
- Geothermal Generator
- Nuclear Power Plant
