Learn about Factorio Power Production - What is Best?

Learn which energy production type is best in Factorio.
We compare solar energy, nuclear energy and steam engine power.

Every Factorio base needs power production to generate electricity.
Boilers and steam engines, solar panels and accumulators and nuclear reactors each have strengths and weaknesses. Get an overview to make the best decision for your base.

Music used:

Video Chapters:
0:00 Three ways to produce power
0:39 Build Difficulty and Materials
2:04 Fuel needed for Energy Production
2:28 Consumption of Space
2:50 Pollution
3:13 UPS
3:57 Reliability
4:27 Overview and Recommendations

#factorio #factoriotutorial #factoriotips #avadii #gaming

About:
In this video i compare all Factorio energy sources and give recommendations on which is the best for different situations.

[noble]

No fusion? Come on man. We're in the space age now! 🤣
Jokes aside, great video!

[FlameStormerV]

Nice, a new high quality Factorio creator. One thing you didn't mention in favor of Steam power. Instead of coal which you rightly point out needs a ridiculous amount of belts you can convert light oil into solid fuel which contains 12MJ vs 4MJ from coal, with liquefaction you can also convert coal into solid fuel. Even accounting for energy loses in the process coal into solid fuel is roughly twice as efficient.

[WillDa]

I’m team nuclear all the way. I do recognize the strengths of solar builds, I just choose not to use them because shiny candy rock go brrrr

[klimentbassev]

You forgot to mention one very important category: convenience. Solar needs to constantly be expanded as your energy demands typically skyrocket exponentially after the mid-game, when you start implementing modules, electric smelters, beacons and bots. Whereas Nuclear can be upgraded much less frequently, because it is so energy dense. One blueprint of nuclear can produce a gigawatt of power easily, whereas the material and area cost of solar will likely prevent most players from making enormous blueprints to provide the same energy per blueprint. In addition, Solar expansion has an intrinsic task of finding or clearing free space for it.

[kapifromnevada]

Your a new factorio channel. and your already making the top quality videos. NICE

[sturmsuccessor]

I feel like you kind of forgot to mention one very important part when comparing these three. Upfront cost. Producing 1.2GW of energy with Nuclear or even steam is way cheaper than as if you would produce the amount of solar panels and accumulators needed to match it. Solar, while having no drawbacks in terms of UPS and ease of construction, has a gigantic upfront cost in terms of entities needed to achieve a decent energy production.

[ciCCapROSTi]

You almost mentioned it but then didn't. Solar can be built gradually, not as in as your base grows, but as it replaces steam. It's relatively easy to separate your steam boilers from the rest of the network through a switch than turns on when accumulators are under X and turns off when they are over Y.

[moisesconsgonzalez]

Incredible work man, factorio comunity needs these kind of content, structured, clear and concise. You should consider making a lets play series once the expansion drops.

[quilusy]

I thought they fixed a lot of the UPS issues with Nuclear.. can never get as good as solar for UPS of course but it's still the more interesting power producer to build.

[vuza]

The coal requirements for steam power drops from ~15k to around ~7k if you use coal liquefaction to turn coal into oil products and produce solid fuel with the oil products, thus becoming about twice as efficient in terms of coal usage (or ~3k with productivity modules, or 5 times as efficient).

The coal requirement to use rocket fuel is slightly lower than solid fuel, but only if you are using productivity modules in the rocket fuel assembling machines, still around ~3k, which can fit on 2 red belts.

You could also use advanced oil processing to create the solid fuel, in which case you'd need ~55k oil (~30k with productivity modules). Producing rocket fuel with productivity modules instead of just solid fuel gets you just below 30k.

Going for nuclear fuel you need ~850uranium ore (1 yellow belt) and ~2k oil or ~250 coal for your steam engines.

[TheHuntermj]

I have a massive world going at the moment and I wanted to power my base with solar power and batteries, I have filled in oceans to cover in panels and accumulators. It takes 7 minutes to take my rocket fuel powered train from one end to the other and the only way I can realistically keep everything running is with a massive 100k drone network and a few dozen remote controlled spidertrons. Currently running at 28GW but still needs more power!

[basbekjenl]

I usually add solar as soon as I unlock it to assist the steam engines during the day. But nuclear is my favourite to set up, I usually go for a 10 reactor design and I only use the steam when the accumulators drop under half full. Then I add solar and accumulators at infinitum to use the nuclear power only as a back up. Nuclear is by far the most fun and I always build and design it anew every game as it is a part of the game I enjoy the most.

[theoldhorn]

Found this channel thru your live stream. Good quality video, keep 'em coming!

[meedrowh]

Solar + Accumulators are really reliable, too. Solar has already long since been broken down to be producing about 42kW of power on average throughout the day+night, and building enough accumulators to sustain them isn't much of an issue anyway.
When doing deathworld, I like to limit my entire production with an RS Latch. The factory turns off segments during night depending on power charge, allowing the pollution used to construct the solars to dissipate into the tiles.
That's of course only one take. I do like to set up some nuclear before switching to solar. 480 MW of power with virtually no pollution and minimal UPS concerns is really great.

[TimTR]

My opinion: (Fusion?) > Nuclear > Solar > Steam.

The space cost of Solar is a big factor to me at some point, because modules start to eat so much power that the space needed for solar becomes insane.

[Gamydrop]

if for any reason someone is watching this because they are playing space exploration and need the 2.4 GW output within 48 hours. I would recommend looking into the steam tank turbine battery, it takes like 4 hours setup though.

[lubostankosky]

This video was very well made. I'm looking forward to the next one.
You earned yourself a subscriber

[moeszyslak]

Love the Style.
Good Audio, good pace .. love it.

[rhueoflandorin]

early game: steam..upto about 400 MW...800 MW if you're somehow struggling to get nuclear set up.
mid game: nuclear. Upto about 4 GW...without much consequence in terms of UPS if built correctly.
When your base is consuming about 2-3GW+, it's time to clear large swaths of area to place down large solar fields.
Sure you can start plopping the solar builds down and skip nuclear altogether, but i found it's easier to have the nuclear set up to provide the power and RELIABILITY needed during the transitionary stage of the game.

[maelglorious]

I always put my steam on an S/R latch so once solar or nuclear go live it will idle unless I over draw those sources. Helps to have a 100-200MW backup for when the "factory must grow" beyond what I have the power for.