Grain Power Plant

Grain Power Plant Blueprints: 100% Renewable Energy

These two blueprints provide 5.4 MW and 15 MW of electric power using nothing but water and sunlight. If you have an untapped groundwater source in a remote corner of your island, lack electricity, or simply want to run a fully renewable grid, these blueprints are for you.

Blueprint: 5.4 MW Grain Power Plant

This is a lightweight, mid-game affordable project that provides a steady 5.4 to 6 MW of free electricity. It is designed to occupy remote, flat areas near groundwater. Once connected to a water source, it is fully automated and requires zero truck deliveries.

The setup utilizes three Irrigated Farms running an alternating crop rotation of Corn and Wheat without fertilizers. The grain is ground into Animal Feed and fed into a Boiler where it generates enough heat to produce 21 High Steam, driving Tier 1 High/Low-Pressure Turbines and 3 Generators to yield 5.4 MW.

Project Materials:

• Construction Parts I: 116
• Construction Parts II: 536
• Construction Parts III: 90
• Rubber: 50
• Electronics I: 60
• Concrete Slabs: 40

Operational Costs (Per Month):

• Workers: 42
• Electricity: 170 kW
• Water: 80-90 (Two Groundwater Pumps work perfectly to supply this)
• Maintenance I: 12

Water Saver Note: To reduce water consumption, depleted steam is condensed back into water using a Small Cooling Tower. You can remove this tower to save on construction costs, but keeping it saves the system 12 Water per month.

The Conveyor Spiderweb (Custom Flow Regulator)

You might notice an arrangement of conveyors after the Animal Feed storage. This is a custom 32.5/min Flow Regulator; it is here to distribute fuel consumption evenly over time.

Normally, a fully loaded power plant consumes fuel at its maximum capacity. In our case, 3 unboosted farms cannot keep up with full demand, which would cause periodic power outages between harvests. This regulator strictly limits the feed to 32.5 units per month, ensuring a perfectly steady, uninterrupted power output (as displayed in the turbine productivity picture).

Scaling Up Farm Boosts

If your farm yield is boosted by 10% or more, the crop volume is sufficient to run the plant at a full 6 MW. To do this, you must bypass the Flow Regulator. Simply select the first U-shape Balancer and set the priority output to the straight conveyor belt leading to the boiler (see picture).

If your farm boost is 15% or over, the generated crop will exceed the power plant's fuel requirements, leading to overproduction. While this won't negatively affect your power generation, you can manage the excess in three ways:

• Reconfigure Crops: Change the rotation. For example, setting 2 farms to Corn/Green Manure and 1 farm to Wheat/Green Manure at a 15% boost will yield the exact amount of Animal Feed required by the plant.
• Export the Excess: Allow trucks to take the excess Animal Feed from the storage buffer to use elsewhere on your island.
• Burn the Waste: Install a Burner via a balancer on the returning conveyor leading back to the Animal Feed storage to automatically destroy overflows (see picture).

Blueprint: 15 MW Grain Power Plant

Once your technology reaches Tier 2 Power Generators & Turbines, this upgraded blueprint scales the concept up to a massive 15 MW.

It utilizes 7 Irrigated Farms to produce enough grain to fuel the heavy boiler requirements. While it demands significantly more space and water than the 5.4 MW version, securing 15 MW of completely free power is highly valuable in the mid-game. Build this factory away in a corner of your map with good groundwater access to permanently feed your grid.

The blueprint can be set directly over the 5.4 MW Grain Power Plant after manually removing the cooling tower with its inlet/outlet pipes and the 3 Tier 1 generators.

(Optimization Note: If your island has the Farm Boost I active, you can achieve this exact same 15 MW output using only 6 farms!)

Project Materials:

• Construction Parts I: 44
• Construction Parts II: 750
• Construction Parts III: 108
• Construction Parts IV: 140
• Rubber: 49
• Electronics I: 180
• Concrete Slabs: 40

Operational Costs (Per Month):

• Workers: 96
• Electricity: 140 kW
• Average Water: 180-200 (4 Groundwater Pumps will supply this)
• Maintenance I: 26
• Maintenance II: 4

Scaling Up Farm Boosts

This blueprint includes a burner to handle any crop overproduction. You may pause the burner and export the animal feed to use it in a more productive way. However, pausing the farms would be even better, as it reduces workforce and water consumption. For a 15% boost, only 6 Corn/Wheat farms will cover the power plant's needs. For a 27% boost, 5 Corn/Wheat farms will work.