Self Sustaining Power Plant Without IC2

[kmart2012]

For the past couple days I started up a server with this new version of tekkit and one of the biggest issues I have been having was creating a power plant. Now if your like me and relied heavily on IC2 in the past, self sustaining power plants were very handy (solar panels). With this new tekkit we all know that IC2 no longer exists and we must use the other mods and build craft power. I am by no means an expert with buildcraft power, but I think I can help those who are having a hard time transitioning from IC2 and are looking for a self sustaining power system that is also pretty reasonable to obtain while not being complicated. I'm am going to write this design as if you already know the basics as to how engines and such work. If you do not, simply look up what they do.

As a quick introduction to the design it is basically a bunch of magmatic engines being powered by lava that is transported from the nether using tesseracts and a pump. Also, using redstone energy cells to store the power for later use.

http://imgur.com/UOMQLuS

This first link is a picture of what the plant looks like on the overworld. Essentially the liquid tesserect in the lower left is recieving lava and transporting it into the magmatic engines through liquiducts (the pipes). In between both rows of the engines are redstone energy conduits (basically your new equivalent to IC2 cables/wires). This wiring then transports all the power into the redstone energy cells (equivalent to the batbox/MFE/MFSU) for storage. The amount of cells and engines you have may vary to any degree, but the more engines you have the more power output and the more cells means more power storage. Also take note of the energy tesseract connected to the energy cell, this is to be put on the last energy cell in the line but for the purpose of fitting it all into one picture I put it there. Also, their is a dimensional anchor in the lower left, this is to keep the plant running no matter where you are.

http://imgur.com/O33N5Wp

The second half of this plant will be inside the Nether so be prepared to secure a bunker in the nether and make sure it is suspended over a large lava lake/ocean. Once the bunker is secured poke a single hole in the floor so that you can see the lava beneath. Then place a pump over the hole like in the picture. After that is done place a liquid tesseract on top like so and connect that tesseract with the same frequency/channel as the one supplying the engines in the overworld. Then place an energy tesseract on the side like so, link this up with the overworld energy tesseract as well. Also notice the dimensional anchor on the right, once again here to make sure the pump works no matter where you are.

After countless hours of fiddling with machines, biofuel farms, and power plant attempts, this was my first successful design. I hope that you may find this as useful as I did while transitioning to the new mods.

Common problems:

Make sure the redstone energy conduits input/output are set correctly, orange=output and blue=input. (can be changed my right clicking with a wrench)

Make sure the max size is set on dimensional anchors (can be done by right clicking).

Make sure the tesseracts are on the correct channels.(right click them)

Engines facing can be rotated with a wrench if for some reason they don't face where you want at first.

[dwfmagik]

Thanks a lot for this. If you have fraps, a video tutorial would get you plenty of views ;)

[Flextt]

Thanks for sharing your design. I am also using it at the moment, because I used Geothermals with IC2. Unfortunately, at an output of 4,0 MJ/t I consider it to be prohibitively expensive, since you need 11 Invar ingots per engine.

One ferreous Ore vein has approx. 2-3 ores and is quite rare. Pulverizing 1 stack iron ore grants you about 6,4 pulverized Ferreous Metal on average (10% chance). 1 Ferreous Ingot / Pulver grants your 3 invar ingots, so you have to at least exploit one vein or half a stack of iron for one engine.

My advice: Exploit dense ores + cave world ages for huge amounts of Iron. If possible, older Spontaneous Explosion ages often have nice tunnels near Bedrock level, since Ferreous Ore only appears quite deep.

[Feekkee]

It looks like the secound energy source i go for. I always start of with the steam engines to get some power to work with.

You just gave me some idés about using tesseracts to get power for the pump insted of using 4 redstone engines.

[notmeagain]

The next step would be to program a turtle to probe the nether for you - deploying it's own dimensional anchors as it goes.

In the old tekkit I had a lava farm setup exactly like this - but pumping into ~500 geothermal generators. The lava doesn't last forever and the pumps have quite a limited radius (in the grand scheme of things).

Once you've noticed the source blocks are no longer the majority of the pool it's time to move on.

[plowmanplow]

When comparing to IC2 one must keep in mind the amount of energy produced with the resource provided. IC2 Geotherms produce 20000 EU at 20 EU/t which equates to 50 seconds worth of power. A TE magmatic will produce 18000 MJ at 4 MJ/t which equates to nearly 4 minutes of power. Given the default conversion ratios of 2.5 EU = 1 MJ you can see that the Magmatic is considerably more efficient with the equivalent of an additional 8000 MJ (nearly double) produced. While this is at half the delivery speed it is a pleasant increase in efficiency.

Also, in order to guarantee your engines will never seize and that you won't waste lava (which, while abundant, is not infinite) it is prudent to have the engines shut off when no work needs to be done. This can be easily accomplished by placing a cobblestone structure pipe with a BC Gate attached on a redstone energy cell in line with the engine stack's power output. You can then set the gate to output a redstone/rednet signal when the cell is full to stop the engines (or change the engine signal requirements and make it emit when there is space to store energy). This is a simple thing which can save considerable resources and hassle.

[Stone Rhino]

Just a suggestion here and it takes a bit to get it fully cranked up and self sustaining, but may I suggest trying something?

Materials:

4x Steam engines (to start)

1 - Aqueous Accumulator

1 - Dimensional Anchor

A few saplings

A stack or two of coal

MFR Planter

MFR Harvester

Appropriate BC pipes

TE Powered furnace

The system is automated once you get enough power to sustain everything.

The aqueous accumulators are good enough that with liquiduct can supply 8 to 10 combustion engines with water. Another person who plays on my server uses combustion engines exclusively. He's producing 120MJ/t compared to my 40MJ/t, but only because he's had enough lead time.

[Stone Rhino]

Also, in order to guarantee your engines will never seize and that you won't waste lava (which, while abundant, is not infinite) it is prudent to have the engines shut off when no work needs to be done. This can be easily accomplished by placing a cobblestone structure pipe with a BC Gate attached on a redstone energy cell in line with the engine stack's power output. You can then set the gate to output a redstone/rednet signal when the cell is full to stop the engines (or change the engine signal requirements and make it emit when there is space to store energy). This is a simple thing which can save considerable resources and hassle.

Good idea! But sadly I'm using redstone conduit.

[plowmanplow]

Stone Rhino: Of course you are using conduit. That's the only way to fly. However, I wasn't talking about using BC Conductive Pipe, I was talking about using a "Cobblestone Structure Pipe". This pipe doesn't transport anything. It is just a mechanism by which you can attach a BC gate to other machines. Thermal Expansion has actually worked specifically with the BC API to make sure that TE machines/blocks interact with BC Gates to provide useful logic decisions.

This can allow you to do some pretty nifty things. For example:

- Set up a Combustion Engine stack that produces 96 MJ/t

- Have the output of the engines go into two redstone cells configured serially

- Have gate attached to the closest RS Cell with the gate set to emit a signal when full

- Have gate attached to the furthest RS Cell with the gate set to emit a signal when it can store energy

- Connect the output of the gates to a Programmable RedNet Controller with intputs tied to a SR-Latch

- Connect the output of the PRC to turn the engines on

What does this get you? Combustion engines have to cool to zero temperature once started so it makes sense for them to run for a long time when you do turn them on. This setup will turn the engines on once they have at least 600K of MJ to produce and will run them until the RS cells are fully charged. Is it somewhat complex? Yes. Is it elegant? I believe so. Is it fun to design/build? You bet!

I can provide pictures if someone wants.

[weirleader]

I still don't get gates, so I'd love to see pics!

[plowmanplow]

[weirleader]

excellent -- looking forward to trying this. Of course, I still need to get an assembly table operational; but this is my first project as soon as that's done.

Thanks!

[Stone Rhino]

Fascinating! I was wondering what those were.

[buCKshoTZ CcG]

I cant seem to get this to work!

[Euphoreich]

What problem are you having buckshotz? Post pictures.

[buCKshoTZ CcG]

Well, I have/had everything setup exactly as the pictures show and i went through step by step very maticulously last night making sure everything was ok. I know i did everything right. but it just wasnt pumping lava from the nether

[plowmanplow]

Did you have a chunk loader of some type in the nether? If the chunks aren't loaded (wherever they are) no machines will function

[buCKshoTZ CcG]

I used an anchor, I went into creative bc i got flustered after 2 hours of running to and from the nether and tried to sit an actual chunk loader down but it wouldnt let me. may be my noobness of not knowing how to sit one lol

[Aurrin]

Well, one thing you can do to make it much easier to get back and forth is to use linking books from Mystcraft. Build a pair of bookstands (two sticks and a plank in a Y-shape), and a pair of books. When you 'craft' the book by itself, it links it to the location where you're currently standing & direction you're facing, becoming a linkbook. Craft one in your workshop, go to your Nether power station, place a bookstand (somewhere sheltered, naturally) and then the workshop linkbook on the stand. Craft the other linkbook in the Nether powerstation, use the workshop linkbook stand (right-click, then click on the rectangle on the right-side page to jump into it), and set up the second bookstand somewhere handy with the Nether power station book. Note that linkbooks don't work within the same dimension, they have to lead to another dimension. Still, quite handy, inexpensive, and far more precise than regular nether portals.

You'll probably also want to start carrying a linkbook to your home with you at all times as an insurance policy: It'll take you instantly back home from anywhere outside the overworld you happen to end up.

[weirleader]

Well, one thing you can do to make it much easier to get back and forth is to use linking books from Mystcraft. Build a pair of bookstands (two sticks and a plank in a Y-shape), and a pair of books. When you 'craft' the book by itself, it links it to the location where you're currently standing & direction you're facing, becoming a linkbook. Craft one in your workshop, go to your Nether power station, place a bookstand (somewhere sheltered, naturally) and then the workshop linkbook on the stand. Craft the other linkbook in the Nether powerstation, use the workshop linkbook stand (right-click, then click on the rectangle on the right-side page to jump into it), and set up the second bookstand somewhere handy with the Nether power station book. Note that linkbooks don't work within the same dimension, they have to lead to another dimension. Still, quite handy, inexpensive, and far more precise than regular nether portals.

You'll probably also want to start carrying a linkbook to your home with you at all times as an insurance policy: It'll take you instantly back home from anywhere outside the overworld you happen to end up.

wow, thanks for the detailed description. I have been meaning to poke around at Mystcraft (I believe that's what you're referring to) but just hadn't gotten around to it. This makes me think I really am wasting my time if I don't!

[Euphoreich]

wow, thanks for the detailed description. I have been meaning to poke around at Mystcraft (I believe that's what you're referring to) but just hadn't gotten around to it. This makes me think I really am wasting my time if I don't!

Dim doors are pretty cool too =P.

[weirleader]

Dim doors are pretty cool too =P.

yeah, well, my son and brother gave them a try within hours of firing up the new Tekkit and immediately got lost. One could return, the other couldn't; then they got separated (I'm still not sure of the details) and I finally decided to teleport him back to base (since I control the server), but I'd never had to use /tpx before and I managed to screw that up too, killing him multiple times before finally figuring it out. By his description, I think he was in limbo for at least part of the time.

Suffice it to say, after that fiasco, we're all a bit hesitant to touch Dimensional Doors again. :-D

[Aurrin]

wow, thanks for the detailed description. I have been meaning to poke around at Mystcraft (I believe that's what you're referring to) but just hadn't gotten around to it. This makes me think I really am wasting my time if I don't!

Linkbooks are an entry-level thing you can do easily with mystcraft. Unfortunately, to get much more out of it requires a lot of exploration and trade to find 'pages'. That's the part you use to create your own, new dimensions. I'm hoping they scale that back down in difficulty a bit soon. But the linkbooks are fairly easy entry-level, and yet so much better than portals. They'll also work from within pocket dimensions (though perhaps not one to the other) and the End.

[Euphoreich]

Linkbooks are an entry-level thing you can do easily with mystcraft. Unfortunately, to get much more out of it requires a lot of exploration and trade to find 'pages'. That's the part you use to create your own, new dimensions. I'm hoping they scale that back down in difficulty a bit soon. But the linkbooks are fairly easy entry-level, and yet so much better than portals. They'll also work from within pocket dimensions (though perhaps not one to the other) and the End.

I think you can still create books that will randomly have a few pages, go to that world and return and you can add those random pages to a notebook that you can then pick and choose pages to create your own world.

yeah, well, my son and brother gave them a try within hours of firing up the new Tekkit and immediately got lost. One could return, the other couldn't; then they got separated (I'm still not sure of the details) and I finally decided to teleport him back to base (since I control the server), but I'd never had to use /tpx before and I managed to screw that up too, killing him multiple times before finally figuring it out. By his description, I think he was in limbo for at least part of the time.

Suffice it to say, after that fiasco, we're all a bit hesitant to touch Dimensional Doors again. :-D

You can create your own rifts just to teleport yourself from place to place, even from overworld to overworld.

http://tekkitlite.wikia.com/wiki/Rift_Signature

[weirleader]

Linkbooks are an entry-level thing you can do easily with mystcraft. Unfortunately, to get much more out of it requires a lot of exploration and trade to find 'pages'. That's the part you use to create your own, new dimensions. I'm hoping they scale that back down in difficulty a bit soon. But the linkbooks are fairly easy entry-level, and yet so much better than portals. They'll also work from within pocket dimensions (though perhaps not one to the other) and the End.

can you pick up a linking book once it's been placed on a stand? maybe I did it wrong, but I seem to have destroyed mine.