Chapter 72: I found a Wind Farm
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Lately, Chen Jin did not come to the base of operation very often. Nonetheless, in the base of operation, there were significant changes. All the plans that Chen Jin wrote down on paper had become an actual reality. And they were even above target!
For instance, the number of steel plate houses was increased to 150. Capsule factories in the industrial area were up to 105. There were 12 exploration teams, with the furthest exploration distance of one thousand kilometers. Four transport teams were put together, consisting of exploration vehicles, transport vehicles, and trailers. Each team had 100 vehicles of various kinds, and they could search for more than 500 tons of materials and resources at a time. After expanding wind power stations again and again, the power generation rate had reached 2000KW. The number of robots grew to over 2,000.
It was fair to say that the base of operation finally looked like what a “base” should be. With its considerable scale, Chen Jin was no longer a novice. Having some experience on hand, he felt a sense of accomplishment.
But then he was stranded at a new bottleneck. Two aspects of inadequacy made it hard to expand the scale of the base. First, the lack of raw materials. For example, the sh.e.l.ls and pillars of the wind turbines required high-strength plastic granules. However, even the granules found in the City of Tereese accounted for only 500 tons, which was only sufficient for producing 30 turbines. For the other 30 turbines, nanoalloy powder became the only alternative, and thus a lot of powder was used. Still, the electricity was far from enough. This gave rise to the second biggest inadequacy, the lack of power, and it became a major bottleneck for the development of the base.
Chen Jin had to tackle these two problems. How? In the near cities such as City of Tereese, Fort Worth City, and other cities within five hundred kilometers, the robot transport team had already seized all the resources. Meanwhile, the northern hemisphere of the Planet Haierfa was in winter. With the temperature of -20 to -30 degrees Celsius, it was very difficult to expand to the north. The main exploration direction could only lie to the south, so the team headed to the south.
Soon, the robot exploration team arrived at the sh.o.r.e and saw a boundless ocean. With the high humidity of the seash.o.r.e and the strong sea breeze blowing inland, the blue sky and the white clouds above look very clear and deep. However, for some reasons, the high-resolution camera of the robot recorded some silver sparkles flas.h.i.+ng in the clear blue sky.
“What is that?” inquired Chen Jin.
“s.p.a.ce rubbish, millions of pieces of s.p.a.ce rubbish, covering the entire proximity,” explained Alice.
Chen Jin’s eyes bulged, and he asked, “Then what should we do? This crazy amounts of s.p.a.ce rubbish is dangerous. How am I supposed to develop the base to outers.p.a.ce in the future then?” For Chen Jin, he always dreamed big. Only staying on this planet was never his ambition. Considering the level of technological advancement in Planet Haierfa, developing a moon colony was for sure possible, if not a Mars colony. Before the great destruction of the war, the human colonizers of different countries living on the moon were over a hundred thousand in number.
The robot exploration team had brought the small astronomical telescopes to observe the surface of the moon, but strangely, there was not a single trace of human activity anymore. Only a few quiet operation bases were left. It couldn’t be that the humans on the moon were all dead too? Chen Jin shook his head. It was a mystery for him.
Alice explained, “It’s okay, master. s.p.a.ce rubbish is not that terrifying. If the base can manage to make a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, it can clean up the s.p.a.ce rubbish, or we will have weapons and technology to avoid any s.p.a.ce rubbish collisions.”
“Ah!” Chen Jin was relieved. Besides, the dream of going to s.p.a.ce was still too far.
Later, the robot exploration team explored the southwest area along the C-shaped coastline called the “Moleiduo Bay.” After entering the Moleiduo Republic, there came some exciting discoveries. A huge block of wind turbines were found, as well as a seawater desalination plant.
The wind turbines found by the robot exploration team stood perfectly on the sea. It was a large-scale wind farm. This offsh.o.r.e wind farm had a total of 40 wind turbines with a power capacity of 5MW, generating electricity up to 200MW altogether. For these wind turbines, they had a diameter of 126 meters, and the height of the hub-center could get to 90 meters. Adopting the excitation system models of the synchronous generator, the turbines did not need to use permanent magnets, and therefore the nuclear wars did not impose much effect on its capacity rate.
The robots even found that the wind farm could supply electricity normally, as long as they connected the cables which had been cut off before, and restored the electricity transmission equipment. That was not very difficult. This meant that they found some ready-to-use electricity generation facilities! After some simple repair works, they could restore the electricity supply instantly. The power generated could reach a hundred times more than the power facilities in the base of operation. The electricity capacity rate was suddenly multiplied by 100! The problem of the electricity shortage was suddenly resolved!
Chen Jin immediately ordered, “Pull a high voltage power line to the base of operation, now!” The wind farm was a thousand kilometers away from the base of operation. It was quite far, and long-distance electricity transmissions might cause some loss, but it was acceptable.
Moreover, the seawater desalination plant next to the wind farm could help a lot too. The precipitation in the base of operation was basically nothing every year. Water was used in many aspects, such as cleaning equipment and vehicles, motor cooling, processing for capsule factories, physical and chemical reactions, etc. The base used at least a thousand tons of water every month. For the thousand tons of water, 70% was pumped from the well near the underground of the base of operation, while the other 30%, Chen Jin just connected a water pipe to the base from his bathroom. Three hundred tons of water usage every month. This was quite a hidden danger. The staff of the water supplier company had visited Chen Jin twice to check the water meter, and questioned him about the heavy use of water.
Since the robot exploration team had found a seawater desalination plant next to the offsh.o.r.e wind farm, they could repair it altogether, restoring its capacity of water supply. If the pipes were extended, the plant could supply water to the base of operation. This way, the shortage of electricity and water was completely tackled. No more hidden danger of exposing this planet to the earth.
There was only one final bottleneck that limited the further development of the base: the shortage of raw materials. This problem was naturally resolved after discovering the Moleiduo Republic.
“Master, before the great destruction of the war, the Moleiduo Republic was a major supplier of secondary industrial products to the United States of Mili (also abbreviated as USM). A huge amount of metallurgical industry, plasticizing industry, oil refinery, and a small number of advanced nanomaterial industries were all in this country.” AI Alice continued, “If we send numerous robots to the Moleiduo Republic, not only can we find a great number of raw materials, but we may also acquire related production technology and boost the technical reserves of the base. This will help a lot!”
“Great!” Chen Jin nodded and said, “Alice, when the problem of electricity is solved, send all the transport teams and 50,000 robots to the Moleiduo Republic. We need to get everything we want from there to the base.”
We’re plundering a country!