Electricity is required to power structures and components placed within structures.
Electricity can be produced by solar panels and wind turbines as well as stored using power collectors.
Day/Night Cycle[]
In Planetbase, electricity "ticks" 30 times per minute. During each tick, every building's listed power rating is subtracted from the Power Grid (or added in the case of Solar Panels & Wind Turbines). Excess/deficit power is then applied to the Power Collector(s).
On Class D and F planets, electricity ticks only 20 times per minute during the night.
For example:[]
- On Class F "Ice" Planet
- 18 kW of electricity are being consumed
- 30 kW of electricity are being produced by a Solar Panel
- During daytime: 12 * 30 * 12 = 4320 kJ of electricity are stored
- During the night: 18 * 20 * 12 = 4320 kJ of electricity are discharged
(What is seen from this example is that on Class D and F planets, generating just 67% more power than what is used results in a perfect balance of full charge vs full discharge of Power Collectors, because it is more efficient to charge Power Collectors during the day and to discharge them at night.)