Steam Power Book

Originally shared on the public FactorioPrints / Factorio School archive (factorioprints.com · factorio.school). Authorship preserved from the public catalog.

<h4>Foreword and design notes:</h4> Book of Steam power with precalculated ratios for Coal and Solid fuel using full yellow or red belt without fuel stacked on top of itself. Based on my previous blueprint: <a href="https://factorioprints.com/view/-MAuoUgqzqsN54rrzh24">https://factorioprints.com/view/-MAuoUgqzqsN54rrzh24</a>

While coal and wood variants relies on rounding, due to rather unfortunate ratio, solid fuel does not. This means that when used with coal a minor idling may be present for boilers and steam engines. This issue is required to consume entire belt, while at the same time being able to produce as much energy as possible. Blueprint names reflect actual expected power production in megawatts. Includes tileable variant for custom sized power plant, and upgrade planner to upgrade from small power poles and yellow belts to red belts with medium power poles. Notably however - the upgrade will lead to minor overlap in power capability. All premade designs can be services with only 1 offshore pump using 2.0 Space Age ratios. Connect the pump to the pipe connecting boilers. System is blackout resistant - it is achieved by having 2 burner inserters per design on the end of the line (beyond point that fuel is expected to arrive when working at full power) to provide refueling of at least 1 boiler if power completely shuts down For more advanced fuels or fuel stacked on top of itself - 360MW power plant also represents all power one can obtain from single shore water pump. Either duplication of power pump or creation of other modules will be necessary. For power plants working within train logistics network - one full fluid wagon full of water can supply 360 MW water plant for ~46.6 seconds. <h4>Warning - note regarding inserters: </h4> Due to time that it takes for burners to burn through fuel, fast inserters are required for coal and wood as fuel sources, while standard inserters are sufficient for all other fuels to fully supply power plant with fuel. Alternate versions optimized for use with those, while keeping upgradability is in the works. Please note - those variants WILL have lower area efficiency, due to being designed to be able to be simply upgraded to other variants by overlaying new one on top of the old one. Image does not show all design variants in the book

<h4>Design goals:</h4><ul> <li>Utilize entirety of belt in question [yellow or red]</li> <li>Provide upgradeable solution - each blueprint can be overlayed on top of previous one</li> <li>Minimize design footprint</li> <li>Be usable early game</li> <li>Be easy to adapt and use without calculating ratios (precalculated variants)</li> <li>Provide tileable solution (customized tilable variant)</li> <li>Be blackout resistant</li> </ul>

<h4>Special thanks: </h4> foamy - from Factorio Forums for initial idea for trippling the boilers. <h4>Updates: </h4> <li>2024.11.03 - Fixed a minor symmetry issue, in form of small displacement of one of sides of the power plant by one tile. Change reflected in name [added version], to make compatibility issue. As a side effect there is an extremely minor resource save for all designs of 1 pipe, but major fix for symmetry, especially in larger scale power plants. Also added some design notes regarding loaders, and regarding use of better fuels.</li>