Power Transmission Laser

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Engineering Department


The Power Transmission Laser

Power transmission laser.png

The power transmission laser can be used to convert excess power into cash. It operates like a SMES unit, with two major differences: It can store a much greater amount of power (two Terajoules, or 2 * 10^12 joules), but it cannot output to the power grid. Instead, it fires a high-energy laser out to a collection terminal in CC, who pay credits for the excess power of the station.

The Price Of Power

Simply put, the more power you send to CC the more they pay you, however there is a degree of diminishing returns on the amount paid per megajoule, so for optimal prices you want to all the power you can as soon as you can. This isn't a big deal when only selling a few tens of megawatts, but when going higher it can put a dent in your income. The amount of credits earned each process cycle(2 seconds) is: (40 * mega_watts_output) / ((4 * mega_watts_output) + (800))

Alternative Uses

In addition to selling excess energy, the PTL can also clear out megafauna in and near the mining base on lavaland. Damaging megafauna with the PTL will delete their loot, even if they're killed by other means afterwards, so only use the PTL for megafauna clearing when the miners can't handle them themselves.
To target megafauna click the target icon in the output section of the interface and select the GPS signal of the megafauna you wish to remove.

Hazards

The PTL is quite safe overall, especially when compared to many other features of the engineering department, however there are still a couple small risks to be aware of:

Flashes

The bore of the PTL emits blindingly bright light. This can be mitigated somewhat with the use of eye protection, and not looking directly at the bore, but above 10MW even welding goggles won't fully protect you. The best way to avoid flashes is to not go in front of the PTL to begin with. Stay behind the black and yellow line and you don't need to worry about flashes.

Radiation

The PTL starts emitting radiation from 30MW of output and up. The amount of radiation is quite small, nowhere near anything like the SM, but it does increase with power production and is still harmful, especially over extended periods of time. So put on some level of rad protection and use a Geiger counter for good measure.

Power Transmission Laser UI

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