All Ways to Get Energy



18 ways of obtaining power are considered. Eruption of vent/volcanoes is given taking into account their active and dormant stages.

When ranking, first of all, availability (ventand raw materials for Terra), ease of construction and additional functions of the scheme (processing of metals, petroleum) were taken into account.

The order of schemes is from best to worst (imho).

Natural Gas Geyser



 * Produces watts
 * Easy to build
 * Features on 99% of maps

An average geyser eruption is enough for 1.2 generators, giving 960 W or 1440 W with an engineering setting. The Geyser is very easy to master. There is a 73% chance of encountering 2 geyser and a 29% chance of encountering 3.
 * Generator produces 67.5 g/s of polluted water, 22.5 g/s of carbon dioxide, 10 kDTE/s of heat
 * Events an average of 110 g of natural gas

For ease of construction, availability on all maps and high efficiency the scheme gets the status of the leader.

Coal Generator



 * Produces W
 * Easy to build
 * Available from the beginning of the game


 * Coal on the Terra map is about 1000 tons (on average)


 * Consumes 1 kg/sec of coal
 * Generates 20 g/sec of carbon dioxide and 9 kDTE/sec of heat

The screenshot is an example for 3 generators (that much the Auto-sweeper can cover). The carbon dioxide produced by the generators is easiest to collect at the bottom of the base. Additionally, it is worth considering cooling the generators or insulating them from farms and living rooms. An engineering setup can also be applied to it.

The Terra map has an average of 1000 tons of coal, which is enough for almost any colony. However, I'd recommend using other ways to generate power.

Solar panels



 * Produces W


 * Requires protection against meteorites
 * Requires a large number of batteries

The scheme in detail was discussed here. Since the sunlight is not constant during the day, many batteries and their cooling circuit are required.

Hot Steam Vent



 * Produces about W
 * Produces 0.6 kg/sec of water


 * Meets 48% of the cards


 * Complicated to build

The vent development scheme was discussed here. During the activity period, the circuit produces about 1150 W, and considering the active/sleeping stage about 705 W. Despite the complexity of construction, the scheme can be recommended, because it gets not only power, but also water, a comfortable temperature.

Manual Generator



 * Easy to build
 * Availability from the beginning of the game


 * Can be used to boost dupes


 * Produces only W
 * Requires the work of dupes

The screenshot shows an example of a so-called "gym". The dupes is locked in a room, it is fed by conveyor with food (the cage should be in carbon dioxide or chlorine) and water (to the lavatory). By cycle 55 the dupes is boosted from zero to the skill of rocket piloting (more details in Speedrun).

Of course, the generator can be used in the usual way from the beginning of the game.

Electrolyzer



 * Produces W
 * Easy to build
 * Produces 888 g/sec of oxygen


 * Consumes 1kg/sec of water

Produces 112 g/s of hydrogen, enough for a 1.12 generator, giving 896 W. Consumption: - 24 W (water pump); - 26.9 W (gas pump); - 120 W (Electrolyzer). Total: 725 W.

To simplify the scheme, 1 generator is used. Excess hydrogen can be let into the rocket (for this purpose a pipe goes down). The Electrolyzer was discussed in detail in Getting cold oxygen.

The generator can be placed separately from the Electrolyzer (by providing for cooling). Then the dupes will be able to make its engineering adjustment, increasing power up to 1200 W.

I do not recommend burning hydrogen. For example in 200 cycles, it would accumulate 13.5 tons, which would be useful for your hydrogen rocket, especially if there is no hydrogen vent on the map.

Hydrogen vent



 * Produces W
 * Generator has no waste, only 4 kDTE/s of heat


 * Relative ease of construction
 * Events 47% of maps
 * Ejects an average of 100 g of hydrogen

Ejecting a vent enough for exactly 1 generator, which gives 800 or 1200 W (with tuning). Plus about 50 W from the turbine. The vent is a bit harder to master. If you plan to fly a lot of hydrogen, the vent is worth mastering, but the gas should not be burned, but stored.

The probability of encountering two or more vents is low at 12.5% and less than 2.1%, respectively.

Sour gas boiler



 * Produces W


 * High construction complexity
 * Needs space material - super coolant

In this article considered 2 variants of cooking crude oil into natural gas. The second scheme is more compact, but in addition to the supercoolant it requires thermium. With considerable complexity of construction, any of these schemes can completely solve the issue with power supply even to a large base.

Metal volcanoes



 * Combines the development of volcanoes


 * Produces about W
 * Some difficulty to build

Produces very little power, but allows compact development of volcanoes. Considered here.

Regolith melting



 * Produces W


 * Higher difficulty to build
 * Needs regolith

Produces a gigantic amount of power, up to 25200 W with engineering setup. Capable of powering a huge base, but extremely complex and costly in materials. There is an option, at 1800 W.

Metal refinery on magma



 * Produces W
 * Additional refinery metals at a ratio of 1:1


 * Higher complexity of construction

The scheme was developed primarily for melting metals. It can be greatly simplified for the variant of obtaining only electric power. Since it solves two problems at once, the scheme is very promising.

Cooking Petroleum



 * Cooking crude oil into petroleum in the ratio of 1:1


 * Produces about W
 * Some complexity and cumbersomeness of construction

The scheme is interesting only as a variant of refining crude oil into petroleum without the participation of dupes. Very little electricity is obtained from it.

Petroleum Generator



 * Produces W


 * Produces 500 g/s of carbon dioxide, 750 g/s of polluted water


 * Requires a lot of petroleum or ethanol - 2 kg/sec.
 * Generates a lot of heat - 20 kDTE/s
 * High difficulty to produce ethanol/petroleum

The use of an ethanol generator has been considered here and petroleum cooking here. In both cases, quite complex circuits are required, requiring some involvement of dupes. In addition, there would have to be serious concerns about the removal of the carbon dioxide and heat. The great complexity prevents the scheme from coming close to the leaders.

Rocket Energy



 * Produces about W


 * Slightly difficult
 * Available in the later stages of the game

The scheme was discussed in detail here. The amount of energy produced is highly dependent on the frequency of the rockets flight. Another disadvantage is that the scheme can make liquid oxygen/hydrogen piping difficult.

Leaky Oil Fissure



 * Relative ease of construction
 * Events 47% of maps
 * Ejects an average of 220 g of crude oil


 * Produces only W

The energy generated by the turbine was barely enough for 6 Ceiling light. Another 220 W will give you crude oil if you distill it into petroleum such as this way, and use it in a petroleum generator.

Hydrosensor installation > 200 kg. Water at startup must be less than 50 kg/cell, otherwise the fissure will stall on overload.

The chance of encountering a 2nd sop is negligible at 2.1%.

Wood Burner



 * Easy to build
 * Availability from the beginning of the game


 * Produces only W
 * Consumes 1.2 kg/sec of lumber
 * Tree grows slowly
 * Produces 170 g/sec of carbon dioxide and 9 kDTE/sec of heat

The screenshot is an example for 4 generators (that much the Auto-sweeper can cover). The carbon dioxide can be collected at the bottom of the base. Since the generators emit a lot of it, it may be worth to put a pump to pump it out, and feed the carbon dioxide itself to Molten slickster. You should also be concerned about cooling/thermal insulation and apply an engineering tweak.

It would be much more profitable to let the wood into ethanol distillers. From 1.2 kg/sec of lumber (consumption of 1 generator), you will get 0.6 kg of ethanol, which gives 600 W in a kerosene generator, +450 g of polluted water.

Shine Bug



 * Give the decor


 * Produces only W (for 40 Shine Bug)
 * Reduce fps (at the required number of Shine bug)

There are only 4 Shine bug in the screenshot, and it would take 40 Shine bug for the panel to max out (380 W). For 10 panels (3.8 kW - the consumption of a small colony), they need 400, which would reduce fps to unplayable. You can increase the efficiency of the panels by 14% by arranging them in a staircase (as in this article), but even that won't be enough.

The way of getting energy is the worst, but it gets a few points for decor.

Regolith



 * Produces W


 * Complicated to build
 * Requires the work of dupes

The scheme is inferior to solar panels in everything: in efficiency, in the complexity of construction, in the need to clean up the cooled regolith. In addition, there are better uses for regolith.

Coffee (unrated)
Infinite Energy. Available in the sandbox.