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[idea] hydroelectric power generators

Sander veimo shared this feedback ago

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The new water system is a great concept and i was thinking about the dam they have showcased in the demo for it, and i thought that a hydroelectric generator would be a nice addition for a large base. it would act as a reservoir and essentially a giant battery via the generators.

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Replies (4)

Deon Beauchamp ●

Dessin_Sentierseng

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captainbladej52 ●

Considering they're showing off dams in their previews I would be REALLY shocked if there wasn't some kind of hydro-electric generation in SE2. Far as how good or sophisticated it would be would remain to be seen.

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Valourant ●

More sources of power would be ideal, especially on planets. Would even go as far as geothermal too.

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Dmitry Nesterov ●

Do you think the planet will be hollow in the center? Like in the first part. Or will there still be magma with a core?

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Tael ●

Hydro-electric seems interesting so long as we make sure not to allow blocks to be placed in a way that violates thermodynamics.

Geo-thermal I'd be a bit more concerned about, its a cool idea but computer-memory doesn't like when it has to store a hole in voxel of the dimensions it would require, to say nothing of building a construct with pipes running that deep...

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Semtex ●

The operation of a hydroelectric generator is actually the reverse principle of ship propulsion. A fluid of some volume (given by the cross section of the channel and the velocity of the flow) flows through the generator per unit time , the generator removes some of the kinetic energy of the fluid flow.

In principle, with the introduction of appropriate "game" parameters/constants, the achievable power output of the generator should depend only on the water pressure, (i.e. water column height or head) at the inlet of the water to the generator.

The game design offers two types of atmospheric motors - a conventional jet engine and a “fan”. A jet engine would correspond to a hydroelectric generator for higher pressures and a larger difference in water levels, a "fan" generator for lower pressures and a small difference in water levels at the inlet and outlet.

To avoid nonsensical designs, there should be constraints for the hydroelectric generator:

- it could only be built in an environment with natural gravity

- the outlet cross-section must not be even partially flooded with liquid

- the output of the generator is dependent on the flow of liquid through the generator (I assume there is a way to measure such flow through the channel)

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Count ●

:) hydro-generators run using artificial gravity generators... if artificial gravity generators power requirement was dependent on mass enveloped by the field, inefficiencies could be used to make hydro-electric-gens impractical. or just SE1 style of power requirement depending on envelope volume. either way without gravity and water they should just not function anyway. That would make them impractical without natural gravity.

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Tael ●

While I can't imagine it would be too difficult to add such a variable power-requirement to gravity-gens, it would probably be an issue for how confusing it would be for newer players to understand. Fixed power requirements on the other hand (what they have in SE1) would be an issue if hydro-electric didn't have a relatively low cap for the same reason gravity-drives are often seen as an issue: power output would end up scaling exponentially with the size of the generating system instead of linearly, likely very quickly reaching the point where the output dwarfs any other system for both efficiency and output in an irritating violation of thermodynamics.

Hydro-electric is a fine concept, but allowing artificial-gravity to affect it will likely just break the game-balance somewhere.

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Semtex ●

The question is to what extent the fluid simulation in the game simulates hydrostatic pressure.

Assuming flooding of the generator inlet cross-section, the generator output should be proportional to the hydrostatic pressure (since hydrostatic pressure is a function of gravitational acceleration and the flow of fluid through the generator is a function of hydrostatic pressure).

A good solution would be to make the generator output depend on the square root of the height of the liquid column, or the difference in the height of the water levels. Such a simplified rule (square root dependence) would include all other realistic dependencies of generator output on liquid flow. It would also ensure that it does not pay to build extremely tall objects.

For a nominal generator output, the hydrostatic pressure at the generator inlet should be equivalent to the building length of the generator in the direction of fluid flow. undefinedhandle (how the translator will cope with this formulation, I have no idea)

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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