Factorio Wiki: Power production

Cite as: Factorio Wiki: Power production
Original: https://wiki.factorio.com/Power_production
sha256: d368208f37d0133c202334181fa022ae238ca3e2cff9fe05656eec02967c0d33
Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260924184413/https://wiki.factorio.com/Power_production
Accessed: 2026-10-26
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Credit: Official Factorio Wiki editors; see the page history.
Notes: Used as a cross-check on the boiler and steam engine ratio. Its solar section still uses a 25,000-tick day, where 2.1.23's Nauvis has 7 minutes (25,200 ticks).

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A boiler burns chemical fuel at 1.8 MW and heats water to 165 °C steam. With water's heat capacity 2 kJ and steam's 0.2 kJ per unit per degree, one unit of water becomes ten of steam: a boiler takes 6 water and gives 60 steam per second.	`Steam power`	Code
A steam engine uses 0.5 units of steam a tick (30 a second) and gets full value from steam up to 165 °C, so it gives at most (165 − 15) × 0.5 × 0.2 kJ = 15 kJ a tick: 900 kW. One boiler (1.8 MW) feeds exactly two engines.	`Steam power`	Code
An offshore pump draws 20 units of water a tick, 1,200 a second, needing no power source of its own (a void energy source): enough water for 200 boilers and 400 steam engines.	`Steam power`	Code
A heat exchanger takes up to 10 MW from heat pipes at 500 °C or more and makes 500 °C steam; a steam turbine uses 1 unit of steam a tick and gets full value up to 500 °C, so it gives (500 − 15) × 1 × 0.2 kJ × 60 = 5.82 MW. A lone reactor feeds 4 exchangers, and each neighbour bonus 4 more.	`Nuclear power`	Code
IndustrialCraft²'s Generator turns burned fuel straight into energy, at 10 EU/t. Factorio splits the same job between two machines: a boiler burns fuel to make steam, and two steam engines turn one boiler's steam into electricity.	`Steam power`	Wiki