[Suggestion] Solar Power (Panels and Generators)

‪"‪ The number is accumulated along the whole length of the cable, and then rounded down to the nearest integer. Therefore, if a distance is short enough, there EU loss will remain zero. For example, since Copper Cable loses 1 EU every 5 blocks, a 4 block long Insulated Copper Cable won't lose any EU." -Wiki‬‬

I had another solar-panel idea that could be integrated with this one. I was thinking of a recipe for a higher-tiered solar panel with the recipe of:

Where the furnace was the generator, the force-field was Notch's glass panes, and the iron ingots were a new item for IC2, Silicon crystal. Since IRL solar panels have different efficiencies depending on their manufacturing methods, I was thinking that using actual silicon would produce more energy than a carbon-based panel. The silicon would be processed from sand, perhaps by smelting glass in an electric or better furnace for a few rounds to progressively burn off more impurities. Silicon could also be used in the future as a component in advanced circuits and maybe other things as well.

Why don't we give the under=loved extractor a job and have the ability to extract silicon from glass? I LOVE that idea, and the glass panels thing was genius. I would like to use this in conjunction with the panels & generator idea, by using silicon and glass panes (maybe even just TWO of each) to make a solar panel.

Also, I will still advocate my idea of having a cutoff point of the distance the panels could be from the 'generator", instead of reducing efficiency every block. Oh, and could diagonals not count extra? Diamond-shaped solar flowers really start to get on my nerves.

would be nice to have more realistic solar power
hope somebody will make it into addon

I agree that these should have a loss setup similar to copper cables; in fact those are used in the base of the recipe.

I also love (absolutely love) the idea of non-full height blocks for use as roofing; this prevents things spawning up there.

It would be excellent if these also took the shortest path to a 'receiver' (a properly rated TF used in step-up (redstone signaled) mode is my suggestion for that; though for 1eU/t panels this would imply a non-existent <32::32 TF).

Since the panel on top would count, that would allow for a 7x7 diamond (3 out from a central post) which would then integrate in an x,z off by one shift. Finally, a perfectly flat roof that's useful.

The problem with that is that real silicon is a grown crystal that is slowly extruded. More or less a seed crystal and then a glacially paced pull only candle-dip kind of growth occurs above a painstakingly precise tempered vat of semi-molten silica. Wafers are made by slicing (or sometimes sheering if that crystal geometry is there and desired) then growing the wafers thicker though various polishing and vapor deposit phases. I guess, however, that any machine capable of making industrial diamonds could also take some input sandstone and squeeze it hard enough to force a crystal structure to line up. That might be a good way of making silicon.

Cobble -Macerate> Sand -Compress> Sandstone -Compress> Silicon wafer stack (~2-4?)

clay is also used in bricks (duh) and new awesome costruction foam, and you need pretty much of it for both
so i think it is already valuable ( sure move valuable than copper atm )

offtopic: copper really need either to be waay more rare or have way more uses

Copper's main use for me is making tri-metal aloy. Whatever's leftover goes to making wires for use in devices. You need more re-enforced stone and glass.

Quote from Catattack998

Why don't we have solar panels, instead of losing power every block, just have a maximum range? Cables already work by losing EU only after a set range, and it would be downright pointless to make them lose power so fast. I would rather keep my current solar bank, as it would render it complete trash, because it would drop the production to basically nil. I LOVE the idea, but I just don't want to lose efficiency every panel.

why not add something to make the generators 'wireless' when sending energy to machines instead of using cable. like that wireless redstone mod

Reading Wikipedia on processes for making electronics-grade silicon, the only process that I thought could loosely translate into the technologies available in minecraft was the zone melting process, involving heating only a section of the crystal to force the impurities to gather on one end, which is later cut off. That's why I suggested an electric or better furnace, to get the required temperature levels and heat control. Of course, it'd be a shame not to also make use of more of the wonderful devices in IC2, so there's certainly the space for more steps. At least there's plenty of IDs for items, so making levels of partially-processed silicon would only be a bother for coding.

And, let's not forget that electronics-grade silicon could have more uses than just for our solar panels. I suggested that maybe using it as the corners for the Advanced circuit recipe. Or, perhaps, combine silicon, tin wire (high-end components nowadays operate at a level ~ 5V) , and a rubber / carbon casing to make semiconductor-level components for something-or-other.

wireless transfer? this should have just huge power losses, IRL if you transfer it just for as little as 2 inches it would lose about 20% of energy
for minecraft, maybe less loss but still.. if it would be implemented it should be more of an usability option than energy-efficient one

i think laser-based point-to-point energy transfer is more realistic
maybe in an enviroment of specially refined glass (based on sandstone low-grade product from scheme in silicon thread) it would have a loss similar or less than fiber optics, cheaper and more expandable, but with cons of being bulky and un-recoverable (glass parts ofc)