Satisfactory Coal Generator Guide

Setting up a Coal production system will be one of the most important tasks to get the right start in Satisfactory. You must choose the right place to store the coal, integrate the water resource with the coal, and proper placement of coal-based generators for generating the energy. This Coal Generator guide will go over how to unlock Coal, the best Coal Generator setup, and explain undervolting/overclocking setups.

How to Build an Efficient Coal Generator

A single Coal Generator takes 15 Coal per Minute and 45 cubic meters per minute of Water to produce 75 megawatts of power. If we provide a full Mk 2 belt of 120 Coal, this will be enough to supply eight Coal Generators. Eight Coal Generators need a total of 360 cubic meters of water to be supplied. When fed the correct amount of resources this setup will provide a total of 600 Megawatts of power.

One of the key approaches discussed in the guide is to establish an efficient Conveyor belt system with water pumps and pipelines. The setup guarantees that the power produced is optimally used while maximizing the potential to reduce wastage, letting you expand your factory optimally. For the best Coal Generator setup, we will be building a total of eight Coal Generators and three Water Extractors.

1. Start by making a 5×12 platform, if you are lacking the space to build then we recommend you build on water and then connect it. 
2. Place down your first Coal Generator starting from the left side, and follow up with two more Coal Generators on the right of it. 
3. Then place down a Water Extractor and for maximum efficiency, the connector should be in between two pipes of the second and third generator. 
4. Now put down the other two Water Extractors next to the first one, then finish placing down the rest of the Coal Generators. 
5. Now place some Conveyor lifts next to all of the Coal Generators. Mk. 2 is preferred but Mk. 1 also works. 
6. Then set up the Conveyor lifts, and make sure the Conveyor side is pointing to where the coal is coming out. Belt all Conveyors with Mk. 2 belts. 
7. Now start by putting down a pipe from the first Coal Generator and turning it 90 degrees then run the pipe all the way down to the last Coal Generator and make another 90-degree turn and connect. 
8. Now, line up junction crosses at every pipe entrance of every Coal Generator and add the pipes.
9. Then, line up junction crosses at the entrance of Water Extractors and pipe those in. 
10. Lastly, set up your power lines for the Water Extractors and Coal Generators.

There is no specific way to set up the power lines so place them how you see fit. Setting up power lines for Water Extractors first will allow the pipes to fill. This setup will properly distribute the water flow across all generators without the need for water pumps. Keep in mind that we need to let the water pipes fill first otherwise there won’t be a proper power supply, so do these before starting up your Coal Generators. With all these steps completed, you will have the optimal Coal Generator setup.

Why The 8:3 Setup Is Efficient for Coal Generators

When following other Coal Generator setups such as 2:5. You are going to face a lot of logistical issues. This setup’s focus is on efficiency with no logistical technicalities. The logistics problem you’re trying to solve with the 8:3 is “How to feed 360 water/min into a pipe that only handles 300/min.”

By having the water enter at multiple points along the pipe, some of it can get used up by the generators before it all meets, which means you never have more than 300 fluid/min at any point in the pipe. You can do this infinitely as long as you continue to use the 8:3 ratio for pipe placements. 16:6, 32:12, 64:24, etc. Eight generators take water in this way for 8:3, 360 water to push through a 300 max line.

Under/Overclocking Coal Generators

If you have access to Overlocking, one of the things you can do is create four Water Extractors and underclock them all to 75%. This allows you to put two Water Extractors per line, making two lines of 180 cubic meters per minute. It will also have an extra benefit of taking less power, a total of 50 Megawatts to power four Water Extractors instead of the usual 60 megawatts for three extractors. You also have the choice of grabbing two Water Extractors and overlocking them to 150%, this way you only have one Water Extractor per line of 180 cubic meters per minute. This setup requires 77.6 Megawatts of power for both of these.

This concludes this guide for the best Coal Generator setup in Satisfactory. Make sure to check out our other guides on how to find water, how to remove rocks, and how to make Smart Plating.