The last game I was playing, which I messed up by corrupting my save after switching versions of Millenaire, I decided I was against solar power. In my first IC game I set up a 9-panel solar tree and had enough power to do whatever I wanted in the lower tech tier. For a bit more challenge, I decided all my coal would be put to use producing coalfuel to fuel further refining and my basement miner.
What I started to find, however, was that due to an unlucky spot that didn't have any magma at bedrock, I was stuck using coalfuel for the third OV miner placement, and my coal supplies were dwindling fast. Turning all my coal into fuel, I was teetering at about 30-40 coalfuel cells with no upward trend in supply.
Was I just unlucky, or is it impossible to sustain a single miner indefinitely on its coal product alone?
Should I cave in and instead convert all coal to dust for solar generators?
Note: I did turn up about 8 uranium and was working to get a MFSU, then a MK-I generator going, but since I was still only running one miner resources were a bit scarce.