Solar and geothermal powerplants

[vilvoh]

I'm a pak64 player but I've been playing with pak28 since some weeks ago and I noticed that there aren't almost any independent power plants. I mean, you need to feed them with coal or oil, and sometimes it's imposible as you don't have nor coal mines neither oil rigs near. In addition, pak128 must worry about climate change too...  

I'm going to create several solar powerplants, different from the ones I created for pak64, and a variation of the pak64 geothermal powerplant with a futuristic look.

The rest of candidates are:

• PS10 solar power tower
• Dish Stirling Systems
• Solar Thermal Collector Dish
• Solar pond

So Let's go with the first one. It's a solar thermal farm with fields of solar plates. The central element is a set of depots where the energy that can't be wasted is stored as heat in salt depots.

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/me7qKWVOL0/simscr05.png] us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/S9Y46SDmkn/simscr06.png]

The second one is a Solar furnace, a structure used to harness the rays of the sun in order to produce high temperatures, usually for industry. it's quite big (7-8 floor). More info here.

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/eH5I_N5FNk/simscr07.png]

I'm a newbie in pak128 development, thus I would like to know your opinion specially about scales and sizes. Btw, all are work in progress...

[VS]

I guess it all looks good, scale-wise. Am I supposed to comment on colours or not?

[vilvoh]

No, as I'm still working on textures and reflections..

[vilvoh]

First release of the solar powerplants set. They're two versions of the solar termal farm but with the same graphics: small (animated) and large (static). The small one produces more or less as much as the wind rotor. The large one produces about at least 100 units/day.

a screenshot: http://i45.tinypic.com/29f6uc0.png

P.S: the graphics are available at graphics.simutrans.com

[vilvoh]

Work in progress of the PS10 and the solar pond..

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/CA7VmyWMw0/simscr00.png] us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/Nf4zm7We2k/simscr01.png] us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/9S4-POlVn5/simscr02.png]

[jonasbb]

The PS10 has to be rotated around 180 degree. The tower is allways closer to the sun so that the mirrors are in the sunlight and can mirror the sunlight to the tower.

I hope you understand hat i mean.

[vilvoh]

I see it. In fact, the mirror's field shoud always face the sun, so as you said it's backwards. Anyway, in PS10 case, I'll paint the four rotations therefore the problem is solved.. 

[Václav]

PS10 - looks good but white is not the best color for tower and other parts excepting solar panels (which are not white).

[vilvoh]

It's a work in progress, just a scale test. The model hasn't got textures yet, so that's why it's completly white. 

[vilvoh]

More work in progress and this time with textures. although I must say this may not be the final version. The tower seems too brown and the pictures from the real life version, show that it should be light grey. Moreover, I was a little bit lazy and instead of modeling some of the secondary elements, I've used several stuff from PARTS set.

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/0ixzyl7WMv/simscr01.png] us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/BOTqASqoS7/simscr02.png]

[VS]

It's getting better...

[vilvoh]

Another preview with a few changes... link. Now the tower is grey and has a poster where should be able to read Solarex. I've removed the solar panels, as I'm going to render them twice the size, in order to get more quality, and then scale them back to pak128 scale removing the transparent pixels. I'm also thinking about adding a sandy road to walk along the solar panels..

[Diegote]

Looks pretty nice. 

[vilvoh]

The Solar Power Tower PS10 is ready to produce electricity from the Sun. It has a capacity of 380-400 units by day and only appears at warn climates.

[gauthier]

your plants are awesome
just too much white for me ...

[gauthier]

add this in your dat files 
needs_ground=1

[vilvoh]

In fact, all those objects have the needs_ground attribute with that value. Did you detected something wrong I've missed?

[gauthier]

They appear as there was not "needs_ground" ... you don't have this problem ?

[vilvoh]

No, I don't. Could you please post a screenshot?

On other matters, I've almost finished the stirling solar dishes. There're three or four different types, but I still don't know if I'm going to code them as fields or as 3x3 buildings..

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/Jfzyl_EM5j/stsd.png]

[gauthier]

...

[vilvoh]

Seems you're right. I'll have to check it. Are you using a nightly or a stable version, gauthier?  The central element do have needs_ground but the fields don't. In fact, I didn't know the fields may have that atribute.

On the other hand, I've finished modeling the last solar stirling dish and I'm still working on the solar pond. I've added several pipes, and some details like the generator on the right side.

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/EyMgVYSUq6/solar-p.png]

[The Hood]

You may want to look at this topic, it sounds similar:

http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3056.0

[vilvoh]

Then, as far as I've read, it's a matter of Simutrans but the bug should be fixed. Perhaps gauthier is using an old stable.. 

[gauthier]

Then, as far as I've read, it's a matter of Simutrans but the bug should be fixed. Perhaps gauthier is using an old stable..  Huh?

yes, I'm using the underground_slopes experimental version  (because underground slopes aren't included in the main version)

[The Hood]

Underground slopes are in the latest nightlies aren't they?

[vilvoh]

The first part of the stirling solar collectors set is almost finished. Have a look at some screenshots of the final versions.

[Václav]

Looks interesting. Is it another fielded factory (like forest or grain farm)?
And this question is partly off-topic: How much fields can be around center? Is it set inside *.dat file or is it matter of game code?

[vilvoh]

Looks interesting. Is it another fielded factory (like forest or grain farm)?

Yes, they are. There're two versions, animated and static...have a look at the sources. In real life, this kind of factories are large installations which occupy many acres, so the field factory approach is the best choice.

And this question is partly off-topic: How much fields can be around center? Is it set inside *.dat file or is it matter of game code?

You can set the max and min amounts of fields that must appear, and the spread factor. All are dat attributes. Then the game places the fields according to those parameters adding a little bit of randomness. In these cases, the minimun number of fields is 9, therefore the central element is always surrounded by fields.

[PkK]

First release of the solar powerplants set. They're two versions of the solar termal farm but with the same graphics: small (animated) and large (static). The small one produces more or less as much as the wind rotor. The large one produces about at least 100 units/day.

a screenshot: http://i45.tinypic.com/29f6uc0.png

P.S: the graphics are available at graphics.simutrans.com

Please remeber that IRL solar energy is something not cost-efficient (e.g. no one would put solar cells on their roofs if they wouldn't get a lot of money from the government) cost per unit of energy produced is still about 10 times as high as for water / wind power. Therefore I suggest these power plants only give a rather low amount of energy.

Philipp

[vilvoh]

Well, the production range I had in mind is 20-180 for field factories (solar plates, stirling dishes, etc..) and 180 -400 for big installations (Solar furnace, PS10 solar pond, geothermal etc..)

The main problem is that coal and oil powerplants production is extremely high compared with the rest, at least twelve times higher, so I always hesitate if I must increase the production or not. Obviusly I try to be realistic, but a balanced gameplay is also important.

[wlindley]

Vilvoh: Where did you get the desert graphics? 

The saguaro cactus only grow here in Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert around Phoenix and Tucson... Hm, if there are other matching graphics I might have to do a pak128.Arizona!

[vilvoh]

I use the latest pak128 stable release.

[DirrrtyDirk]

I think it it just something that people instinctively connect with deserts: cactus of some sort. Maybe it's caused by Hollywood movies?

But yes Saguaros... I remember them well from the 6 months I spent in AZ...

[vilvoh]

Finally, the stirling solar powerplants set is finished. It consists of 4 factories, with animated and static versions.

P.S: the attachment is compressed in 7zip format.

[vilvoh]

This is a preview of the geothermal powerplant. It's based on the one I made for pak64, but more futuristic, and with more pipes.

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/3NSLVlZWD5/geothermal-pre.png]

EDIT: Some ingame screenshots...

us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/vDiTmhxeI_/simscr01.png] us (site down, do not visit) ]/image/show/RR3RIM5xje/simscr00.png]