The “intermittent, weather reliant, power supply” part is not really a problem in the world of cata. Batteries will solve this for small scale use. For a bit larger scale, like small faction factories (if they ever get in and we care about their power infeed) running them only on windy days and using batteries to dampen the effect of short-term fluctuations in wind speed could also work.
But maintenance on current-tech large (~1-2MW) wind turbines is a bitch. Cannot see one man doing it for long periods, lots of hard-to-replace equipment required.
Smaller scale ones generating 0.5-2kW of power could be maintained or even constructed though. Just craft a windmill and hook some electric engine on it. Then depending on the engine type, you’d want a way to convert the generated power to DC and plug it on a battery. From then on, just hook the battery to anything you wish.
The engine will pretty much never break down, but the windmill may (fixable). If we want to go deeper on it, add a charge controller to ensure that the battery will stop charging when full and an inverter to convert the battery’s DC power to AC for home appliances. For things of up to 1-2 kW, the materials for AC/DC/AC converters are readily available in electronics stores, UPS’s, switching PSU’s etc.
It would be pretty nice, but tbh demand for mills in cata is not that huge, that’s why it has not been already done, i think.
[quote=“Pantalion, post:7, topic:12315”]Expanding the topic to other renewable energy sources, we already have boat vehicles possible within the code, what about using that system for hydropower?
Water Wheel Part, if in river water, produces a constant, small amount of electricity with an attached alternator (any vehicle in the river can be safely assumed to be anchored securely).
Water Wheel Part, if in river water, and “Mill” vehicle part is attached, gradually converts any grain/rock stored within, 1 unit per 15 minutes. Could this be attached to a “last processed” time so it catches up if it leaves the reality bubble?[/quote]
Same as with windmills for power and grinding, this should be possible to do.
No water flow yet. Water in general needs lots more love.
No wind direction calculations yet either.
I got to say though, that we may not be needing water & wind flow calculations for mills and turbines. Just generate a semi-plausible value for wind/water flow strength and don’t care about direction. This simplification could us avoid large amounts of trouble at implementation.