Lightning Rod

The Lightning Rod is an IV tier singleblock generator that distributes an immense amount of power every time it is struck by lightning during a thunderstorm. The Lightning Rod is available in three tiers or voltages but all of them have the same 50M EU buffer and a maximum output of 512A. The Lightning Rod does not consume any sort of fuel or produce any pollution, but it does require at least one iron fence above it to attract lightning and each strike voids exactly one of them at random. The weather obelisk from EnderIO also consumes concentrated cloud catalyst and fireworks to repeatedly create thunderstorms for the Lightning Rod.

Lightning strikes completely fill the 50M EU buffer of a Lightning Rod, but 1% of the current EU in the buffer is loss every tick so it must be extracted as quickly as possible. The solution is using energy distributors which can pull up to 320A each and automatically transform power up to their rated voltage.

The Lightning Rod could almost be considered a multiblock because it requires 1+ iron fences above it to attract lightning during thunderstorms. There cannot be gaps inbetween the iron fences and the highest one must have direct sky access. Not even glass or partial blocks are allowed to obstruct its view. This is especially problematic when a lightning strike voids an iron fence in the middle of a stack because that creates a gap and renders the Lightning Rod unusable until the missing iron fence is replaced.

The Lightning Rod is not affected by rain on its top side, but the remaining sides and any nearby energy distributors must all be covered to prevent them from exploding. Alternatively, build the Lightning Rod in a biome without precipitation such as a desert since that does not prevent lightning from striking. The optimal y-level for Lightning Rods is anything above 200.

Structure

• 1 Lightning Rod
• 1+ Iron Fence
• 0+ Energy Distributor

Lightning Rods are tileable which means they can be built next to each other and extend infinitely in either direction, as seen in the image to the right. This is actually highly recommended because it makes centralizing power and automating the replacement of iron fences much easier. Having so many in close proximity has no effect on the odds of lightning strikes since each Lightning Rod is effectively its own independent entity.

The Lightning Rod is available in three tiers but all of them have the same 50M EU buffer and a maximum output of 512A. The only difference between them is their output voltage which determines how quickly they can empty their buffer and consequently how much EU can be saved per lightning strike. The result is +46% EU/t for T2 Lightning Rods and +69% EU/t for T3 Lightning Rods, which is not exactly worth the 8x and 64x cost to craft them. Therefore, it is highly recommended to just build more T1 Lightning Rods rather than upgrade them.

Lightning strikes completely fill the 50M EU buffer of a Lightning Rod, but 1% of the current EU in the buffer is loss every tick so it must be extracted as quickly as possible. The solution is using energy distributors which can pull up to 320A each and automatically transform power up to their rated voltage. For example, a single IV energy distributor can pull 320A HV from a T1 Lightning Rod and output it as 20A IV to an adjacent cable. A second IV energy distributor can then pull the remaining 192A HV and output it as 12A IV to the same cable. Energy distributors are also tileable so they can be built next to each other and extend infinitely in either direction, since they have only one input side.

Lightning Rods should ideally be anywhere above ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle y=200}}$ but the problem with that is transporting the power back down to your base without placing an absurd amount of superconductors or suffering too much cable loss. The Lightning Rods may even be in a separate dimension because it is not very pleasant to live in a constant thunderstorm. The recommended solution is using EU P2P tunnels and an AE2 quantum bridge to carry channels across any distance or across dimensions with only 5% loss. If building Lightning Rods in a personal dimension, verify that weather is enabled by sneak right-clicking the portal to open its configuration settings.

If living in the same dimension as Lightning Rods, then it is highly recommended to muffle both the rain and thunder sound. This can be accomplished in two different ways. The first is navigating to Music & Sound Options under the normal game options and turning down weather. The second is opening the Extreme Sound Muffler (ESM) via the top right button in your inventory and turning down anything that comes up when searching for weather under All Sounds. The latter is more precise and flexible, but the ESM folder needs to be pulled over whenever you migrate versions and it does not work on all thunder sounds--a few still manage to cut through.

The Lightning Rod does not rely on naturally occuring lightning strikes. Instead, there is a chance (${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{P}}}}$) every 12.8 seconds for the Lightning Rod to generate its own fake lightning strike based on the y-level of the highest iron fence, the total number of iron fences, and the current weather. Again, having multiple Lightning Rods next to each other has no effect on the odds of lightning strikes since each one is effectively its own independent entity. The fake lightning strikes may appear and sound identical to real lightning strikes but they do not transform mobs into their charged variants or upgrade the pig Adventure Backpack into the pigman one.

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{P(Lightning Strike)}}={\text{Min}}{\Bigl (}1,{\frac {y\times {\text{Iron Fences}}}{1,024}}{\Bigr )}\times {\begin{cases}0,&{\text{if no weather}}\\0.1,&{\text{if raining and }}y\geq 128\\1.0,&{\text{if thunderstorming}}\end{cases}}}}$

A lightning strike is guaranteed every 12.8 seconds during thunderstorms if ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle y\times {\text{Iron Fences}}\geq 1,024}}$. That means build Lightning Rods as high as possible or stack more iron fences on top of them, except the latter is not recommended because it creates a higher initial start cost and requires more flexible automation. Place the Lightning Rod anywhere above ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle y=200}}$ to require only five iron fences at most, as seen in the following table.

Every lightning strike voids exactly one iron fence at random which could be the very bottom one, somewhere in the middle, or the top. Automation methods for replacing the iron fences must be able to adjust for that to keep the Lightning Rod running, since a gap would render the machine unusable until the missing iron fence is replaced--it would be obstructed by the floating iron fences above it. See the iron fence automation section for details.

One iron fence costs exactly one iron rod or 0.5 iron ingots to craft in an assembler. Assuming 12.8 seconds between lightning strikes, the average cost of replacing iron fences for a single Lightning Rod is approximately 0.039 iron per second, 2.344 iron per minute, or 140.6 iron per hour. Passively automate the production of iron fences or use an ME Level Maintainer to ensure a surplus at all times.

Thunderstorms occur naturally once every 9 hours on average and last anywhere from 3-13 minutes. Lightning Rods can generate a lot of power in that short amount of time but it would be significantly better and much more reliable if thunderstorms were persistent. Fortunately, there are ways to automate the weather at a very low cost.

The weather obelisk from EnderIO can repeatedly create 10 minute long thunderstorms with one firework rocket, 5000 RF, and 1000L of concentrated cloud seed. The flight duration of the firework rocket is irrelevant so craft them with one gunpowder and one piece of paper. The RF is equivalent to approximately 1,389 EU and can be supplied by connecting any GregTech cable directly to the weather obelisk itself. The concentrated cloud seed can be made in either the EnderIO Vat or the Bacterial Vat.

The rite of sky's wrath ritual from Witchery can repeatedly create 10 minute long thunderstorms with one wooden sword, one wood ash, and 1000 altar power. The ritual circle consists of a ring of white chalk around a single gold chalk at the very center. Grasspers hold the two inputs and the ritual is activated with a redstone timer. Create grasspers by placing grass on all four sides around a chest above a block of water, and then right-clicking the chest with a mutating sprig. Create wood ash by smelting saplings in a vanilla furnace or witches oven. Ensure there are no flammable blocks around the ritual circle because it causes several lightning strikes and fires around the area when activated.

The difficulty in using the Lightning Rod effectively is having to replace iron fences as they are voided regardless of where they were on the stack. At maximum, one iron fence is voided every 12.8 seconds per Lightning Rod.

The core mechanic behind this approach is spawning iron fences with AE2 formation planes and then pushing them to the correction position with vanilla pistons. The pistons are triggered on a regular basis by a redstone clock and are stopped by obsidian at the other end. This approach is simple, robust, and quick to set up. The only downside is that there are a lot of moving parts, but the TPS impact is very low anyway.

The core mechanic behind this approach is using the BuildCraft Filler to spawn iron fences in exactly the correct locations as they are voided. The boundaries of the BC are specified with land marks and it is repeatedly activated with a specially crafted iron AND gate. This approach is very simple to setup with very few moving parts, but the maximum range of the land marks is 64 blocks and the maximum fill rate is 1 block per tick.

• The Lightning Rod was the very first machine added by GregTech, when it was still only an add-on for IndustrialCraft2 (source).