En/Energie

Energy

Energy is, alongside Metal, Crystal and Deuterium, one of the basic units of the game, and is needed by mines to generate resources. However, Energy is treated separately from resources. One of the major differences to resources is that Energy can neither be stored nor is it permanently regenerated. Instead, the available Energy value increases by a fixed amount for each level of an Energy building, which can then be consumed by mines.

Usage

Besides mines, a one-time amount of Energy is required for Graviton Research and the Terraformer. It doesn't matter whether the Energy is needed by mines at that exact moment or not — only the total Energy income matters.

The total income is determined by the Energy sources versus the Energy consumption of all mines. This value can therefore also be negative if consumption exceeds production. In that case, the production factor is reduced accordingly, which in turn lowers the yield of the other resources. Resource production can be tuned toward a preferred resource. The output of Solar Plants and Solar Satellites can also be reduced, though this offers no advantage.

Sources

The primary source of Energy is the Solar Plant. Another option is the Fusion Plant, which constantly consumes Deuterium to generate Energy. The third alternative is Solar Satellites. Their advantage is a relatively high Energy yield for a constant price. However, they count as part of the fleet and can therefore tempt other players into a debris field raid, especially since they are an easy target and, unlike other ships, cannot be saved. Later in the game, on planets with high-level mines, Solar Satellites become the most important Energy source.