How do you power your cities?

[CabraBuitre]

I'm going to restart playing after about 18 months off and one of the questions I had for myself was the question of power.

In the past, I've used Gsmails' Southwestern Windmill before http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=2351&v=1 when I've wanted quick easy power that doesn't have pollution, b ut you have to plop a TON when your city becomes even medium sized.

So, I pose this question...

How do you power your cities?

And also, what aer different options to power cheaply and without relative NIMBY effects?

[thundercrack83]

I go with what I consider a "centralized" approach.

I aside a tile in the region and have all the power from the whole region stem from that one tile, connecting lines from region to region as needed.

The downside is the obvious switching back and forth between multiple tiles in order to adjust power, but the upside is the consolidation of pollution and other negative effects on one tiles.

Hope that helps!

[FrankU]

I must admit..... I cheat.
A long time ago on the STEX I found an "Electric power plant" that was cheap and did not pollute. I edited this until it looked like I wanted. I then adjusted some parameters and voilá: a cheap and reliable cheat.

[sebes]

I must admit..... I cheat.
A long time ago on the STEX I found an "Electric power plant" that was cheap and did not pollute. I edited this until it looked like I wanted. I then adjusted some parameters and voilá: a cheap and reliable cheat.

I would be intested in seeing how that looks like. Can you show a picture?

[metasmurf]

I use
UtilityRadius TrafPollution Modd by ralphaelninja. After installing this mod, a windmill will cover an entire city. Same goes for water. Hope it helps 

[CabraBuitre]

Thanks guys, these are all great ideas.  Anyone else have any more ideas?

I had found a power plant that was cheap and put off lots of power (with no pollution), but I can't for the life of me find it.  I think it was a safe nuclear power, either 6x6 or 5x5 and really hi-techy looking, but it didn't have the nuclear towers.  Anybody have any ideas what this could have been?

EDIT:

Heh... I just found the power source I had used before, and it turns out it was a 6x6 version of the Maxis Hydrogen power station that I pulled off of Simtrop!  I'd like to try to find something that costs a bit less but has that type of capacity, just for simplicity.

[j-dub]

Safe Nuclear Power! Thats what Fgottes has headlined about their FDG Enhanced Nuclear Power Plants from the Stex, but it had the towers in the picture.  http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=2391&v=1
However, theres this Nuclear Fusion Plant, http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=493&v=1 it has no towers, but I guess generating Nuclear Power this way is the same as a Hydrogen Plant, which we already have in game once unlocked for 10 grand. I didn't know Hydrogen was the same thing as Nuclear power except cleaner. I guess you learn something new all the time.

[CabraBuitre]

Safe Nuclear Power! Thats what Fgottes has headlined about their FDG Enhanced Nuclear Power Plants from the Stex, but it had the towers in the picture.  http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=2391&v=1
However, theres this Nuclear Fusion Plant, http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=493&v=1 it has no towers, but I guess generating Nuclear Power this way is the same as a Hydrogen Plant, which we already have in game once unlocked for 10 grand. I didn't know Hydrogen was the same thing as Nuclear power except cleaner. I guess you learn something new all the time.

Not the same... I was just wrong!  See my edited post above yours.

[shoreman905]

I do a lot of rural cities (if you can call such, cities) big power plants of any type do not look right. In RL all our power here comes from the grid, plants in Maryland provide all the juice. So I use the Nexis Village Battery. It has the smae power as the windmill and does not need road connection. I wasn't too hot on the tin shed used on the lot, so I made it into soy fields, barns, graveyards, and parking lots to camoflage it. It can be found at http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=16139&v=1

[spa]

Somy's microwave power plant in one tile central delivering the juice far and wide!

[NASCAR_Guy]

I do a lot of rural cities (if you can call such, cities) big power plants of any type do not look right. In RL all our power here comes from the grid, plants in Maryland provide all the juice. So I use the Nexis Village Battery. It has the smae power as the windmill and does not need road connection. I wasn't too hot on the tin shed used on the lot, so I made it into soy fields, barns, graveyards, and parking lots to camoflage it. It can be found at http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=16139&v=1

I use that same approach even in my larger cities. They don't look to terribly out of order (Like a utility shed almost) and they fit right int industrial area's.

[MandelSoft]

My approach depends on what kind of city/town I made:

Farmer village: a few windmills spreaded all over the place.
Small city: solar panels or windmills all lumped together
Large city: coal/oil power plants (placed in an industrial area, when money's running out) OR solar power plants (when I got more money) OR Nuclear power plant (when I got A LOT of money)

[writingliberty]

I usually use a lot of wind turbines, interlink my cities, and the ones with heavy industry might become providers with oil or NG plants (I don't like using the coal, since I like to build like I'm in California and we don't use coal out here at all.). But generally I'll run even cities of 50-75k off wind only.

I also try to meet the requirements for solar and nuclear and then build those.

[Grneyes]

So how does Ralphaelninja's mod work?

[M4346]

I mainly use "clean" plants, the SFBT generators or the CSX Waste Removal Plants.

I have not yet had any reason to build anything bigger, and I admit that the greatest concern to me is the effect on the environment and also it's visual 'appeal'.

[RippleJet]

I have not yet had any reason to build anything bigger

So, the Pelindaba Nuclear Plant was a small one?

[WC_EEND]

mostly windmills and solar power

[Vario80]

I'm using mostly clean and cheap nuclear power plants.
Okay there's always a minimal risk for a possible MCA, but still... 
Besides that, this also the main energy ressource in my vicinity
(not counting the numerous wind power parks here... well i'm in two minds about them...)

[MassHelper]

I used RaphaelNinja's red (newest one) Thermal Infusion Plant... Small (2x2) , yet it employs people for I-HT (4290 people per one) and produces 120,000 MWh and 80,000 cubic metres of water.

Mass

[rooker1]

I'll use anything with alot of smoke and as ugly as possible.  

Robin