Nuclear or solar?

The solar recipe is only OP due to the fact that it's "set and forget." I've been using it as backup power. Nuclear is well worth the investment considering you can adjust it's output by adding chambers and components.

I would suggest solar to keep things going for up until the time where nuclear is a viable option, then move solar to the back burner.

Quote from CBLtBrian

I cant decide wether to use nuclear power or solar because the solar recipe is a little OP for only 2 eu per tick but the nuclear reactor is expensive without EE... I was wondering what other people think....

1 EU per tick, or rather 0.5 EU/t on average for the whole day.

EE? You use that cheater mod?

I agree with Mister_Omega, just go Solar then . are useful for the step in between though.

Ironically, that's what occurred in real life, we had used solar energy for the longest time, progressed to using the heat of the earth (geothermal), then to nuclear.

With the Nuclear Control addon, you can really go nuts with reactors. Currently working on a massive nuclear facility where I'm experimenting with CASUCs. Getting enough RStone for it is a pain though.

Quote

Geothermals are useful for the step in between though.

*cough* It's also useful for all those other steps at the beginning and end...

240k EU storage | Better than a Batbox
20 EU/t per unit | Higher than any other Generator outside of Nuclear
No risk of meltdown...
Cheap to add together in sets...
Most of the fuel is easy to collect, and readily available in many places...

Personally, I still think Geothermal is king, because I have yet to run out of it on my worlds... lol...

Solar is nice, as a backup. They cost a lot to craft for a small output, but that's because they run for free and are truly a "set and forget" energy source.
When I'm starting up, I usually build solars. Even if they only work for about half a day, they still are passive EU which is nice.
Though without CompactSolars they tend to cause massive amounts of lag from eNet updates from crossed wires(which is easy enough to fix, just paint them different colors, assuming you aren't using tin[thus you'd pretty much need glass fiber cables since no other cable has low enough EU loss to allow for big solar flowers]), but the same can happen WITH CompactSolars, it's just less likely as you reduce the amount of blocks needed to get the same amount of power, thus reducing the eNet load. If one builds a solar flower with CompactSolars, they quite clearly need to be shot, though.

But with Redpower and Nuclear Control, one can build some amazingly good reactors. Add Thermal Expansion and you can make a compact yet efficient Ice CASUC design, even without compressors(though it is a good idea to use compressors, makes it faster to get the ice, but it isn't really needed). Add ComputerCraft and the CCSensors addon and you can build a computer which can controls the whole reactor, no switches or buttons.(though one might be able to do that with RedPower Computers) One could even use the Force Field Generator mod(the old version, anyway) to automate the cooling and heating system and allow for one to prevent massive explosions from reactors. The new version doesn't have that feature, but at least someone is maintaining it.
Mix those together, and you'll have a super powerful reactor which you can turn on with the press of a button, and generate enough power to fill as many MSFUs as you want/have, and it'll automatically shut down when it has filled them. And it's still cheaper then enough solars to generate enough power to match the average EU.(keep in mind solars work for about 50% of the day, so even if you get 2000/EU a tick from your solar plant, you really need to bring in 4000EU/tick to compete since solars don't work at night, thus driving the cost up)

As for geothermal, well shit, it's basically free anyway(there's more then enough lava in the world, even without draining the nether), and it works great.
If only geothermal power was realistic in how it works in IC2, one could say "It's worth the risk" and not have to bite your cheek. Mind you, if IC2 was realistic, that would kind of beat the point of using it.

Also, if you're on a server and don't want to lag it out with flowing blocks from draining the Nether and you use BC, there's a BC addon called Thermal Expansion that, when supplied with BC power will take stone, cobblestone, or netherrack and turn it into lava.

geothermals are the best when you upgrade your mining site with pumps and a cell-maker complex. you'll never run out of lava

...moving your pumping rig gets old after a while...
unless i am missing something very-very crucial.

Quote from inucune

...moving your pumping rig gets old after a while...
unless i am missing something very-very crucial.

frames

Yea, geothermals seem to be king. A battery of nine geothermals, around three golden waterproof pipes, produces 180 EU/tic.

To get that kind of energy output, the nuclear plant with an identical EU output is found here. This has a MASSIVE amount of resources and subcombines necessary, and has a (slight) explosion risk, due to it being a Mk II-1 reactor (but only if you run it multiple cycles without allowing cooldown first).

Let's look at a cost analysis:

9x Geothermal plants:

9 Generators
18 Refined Iron
18 Glass
36 Cells

The aforementioned plants:
216 Copper
80 Advanced Alloy
22 Advanced Circuits
8 Machine blocks
1 Generator
132 Water cells
10 Uranium Cells

Nuclear Reactors are very cheap, actually, per EU/t.

But best is, probably, wind - good power, and no/little upkeep.

Quote from ShneekeyTheLost

Yea, geothermals seem to be king. A battery of nine geothermals, around three golden waterproof pipes, produces 180 EU/tic.

To get that kind of energy output, the nuclear plant with an identical EU output is found here. This has a MASSIVE amount of resources and subcombines necessary, and has a (slight) explosion risk, due to it being a Mk II-1 reactor (but only if you run it multiple cycles without allowing cooldown first).

You forget that on the long run, the nuclear reactor its more mobile and with a virtualy-unlimited suplie of fuel, cuz even in the nether, the lava runs out before I run out of uranium. And if you use nuclear control or set up a CASUC all others generators are da shiat.

Quote from ShneekeyTheLost

Yea, geothermals seem to be king. A battery of nine geothermals, around three golden waterproof pipes, produces 180 EU/tic.

If you don't mind running around with lots of buckets - yes, gheoterms are good. But if you want to use pipes - you should compare gheotherms not with vanilla ic2, but with casucs. And casuc is ~2000 eu/t.
And don't cheat in you math by comparing generator count to copper count. 9 generators is 72 iron, which is a lot.

Quote from baturinsky

If you don't mind running around with lots of buckets - yes, gheoterms are good. But if you want to use pipes - you should compare gheotherms not with vanilla ic2, but with casucs. And casuc is ~2000 eu/t.
And don't cheat in you math by comparing generator count to copper count. 9 generators is 72 iron, which is a lot.

In 1 run i can get way more than 72 iron. You only need to find 36 ore since you macerate it.

Compared to solars or even nuclear geothermal is by far the cheapest.

I mostly played ssp, and my progression was coal-geo-nuclear. You don't need to build 6-chamber to start producing nuclear energy, 0-chamber is more than enough for all early-game needs.
And 0-chamber is very cheap for it's power - check planner.

Green gens are good for SMP, if you can get them loaded for long enough time, while you are away, and for investing all that iron you get from uu. Of them, wind is most effective.

Gheotermal are valid for early game, before you get your first nuclear, and for Nether.

Nuclear are overall best, while you have uranium.

So, right way i think is coal (or scaffolds) - geo - nuclear - bigger and badder nuclear (casucs and breeders) - make tons of uu - make tons of wind - build as much wind as your pc or server can manage - have constant huge income of eu.