Magic Energy Absorber

Magic Energy Absorbers (MEAs or Absorbers) are single block EU power generators added by GregTech that are an upgraded variant of Magic Energy Converters. Unlike their earlier forms, they cannot generate power by consuming magical items as fuel, but they instead have the ability to generate power from other forms of magical energy from vanilla Minecraft and Thaumcraft. There are four levels of Magic Energy Absorbers, corresponding to the first four GregTech electrical tiers: Novice (LV), Adept (MV), Master (HV), and Grandmaster (EV). Each is able to output up to 1A of its tier's voltage to the face with a gray, orange, or yellow dot, and has a large internal buffer of around 16,000A of its voltage that can be filled at an unlimited rate. While outputting power, the blue dots on its side and bottom and blue panel opposite the output will turn yellow. MEAs have a maximum range depending on their tier, starting at 8 blocks in LV and doubling each tier to reach 64 blocks at EV; this range can be adjusted using a GregTech Screwdriver, and is used for certain energy sources.

The primary use of MEAs is their ability to generate power completely passively from certain blocks and entities: Dragon Eggs, Creeper Eggs, and Ender Crystals. Placing a Dragon Egg or a Galacticraft Creeper Egg on top of an MEA will cause it to generate power with no input required or other conditions. Dragon Eggs generate 2048 EU/t, or one amp of EV, and Creeper Eggs generate 512 EU/t, or one amp of HV; this amount does not depend on the tier of the MEA, but the amount of this power that can be output is limited by said tier, so in practice Creeper Eggs should only be used with HV+ MEAs, and Dragon Eggs with EV MEAs. Additionally, within their range, MEAs will generate 512 EU/t for each Ender Crystal, although they will still be limited to outputting 1 amp of their voltage.

Another way to generate power using Magic Energy Absorbers is by disenchanting items, converting the enchantments into EU based on the rarity and level of the enchantment. Any item can be disenchanted in this way, but all items other than enchanted books will have a penalty applied to their EU output based on the efficiency of the MEA: 90% for LV, decreasing by 10% each tier down to 60% at EV. All enchantments are removed at the same time, and if the internal buffer is unable to store the EU the item would produce, the MEA will stall until the buffer has enough space. The amount of EU per enchantment, excluding the efficiency for non-book items, is given by the following formula, based on the enchantment-specific weight value and the enchantment level^[1]:

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle 1,000,000\times {\frac {1}{\text{Weight}}}\times {\frac {{\text{level}}_{actual}}{{\text{level}}_{max}}}}}$

MEAs can also generate power from two types of magical energy from Thaumcraft: essentia and vis.

MEAs are able to absorb essentia from containers in their range, including traditional containers such as warded jars as well as the Infusion Provider from Thaumic Energistics. Each aspect has an EU value^[2], as shown in this table:

These values are further multiplied by the efficiency of the MEA to determine the actual EU generated per point of essentia.

MEAs can absorb centivis from Energized Nodes within their range and convert it into EU. The EU generated is proportional to the square of the centivis absorbed, and modified by the MEA's efficiency^[3]:

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{CV}}^{2}\times {\text{Efficiency}}\times 0.2}}$

Centivis will not be drained beyond the amount required to generate 1 amp of the MEA's tier.

Although there can be niche uses for the other ways to generate power using MEAs, the most relevant ones by far are the ability of a GMEA (Grandmaster MEA) with a Dragon Egg to produce a full amp of EV with no ongoing resource inputs or maintenance, and the ability of a MMEA (Master MEA) with a Creeper Egg to do the same with an amp of HV. Some situations where this is useful include:

• Powering an AE2 system, either a main network or a subnetwork, without relying on the main power grid. This is especially valuable for networks that are involved in generating power, either for handling logistics or gathering inputs, to make it easier to recover from issues that interrupt power generation.
• Powering machines at long distances from the base, or on other dimensions entirely, such as Ore Drilling Plants and Fluid Drilling Rigs.
• Powering farms that are likewise located far from the base or in other dimensions, often due to needing certain biomes for maximum output.
• Powering machines that need to run constantly, but don't need very much power, such as Neutron Accelerators for Neutron Activators, or some powerful passive producers like the Tree Growth Simulator.

Using any of these requires a bulk source of either Creeper Eggs or Dragon Eggs. Creeper Eggs are found on Mars dungeons after obtaining a Tier 2 Rocket, and each dungeon typically contains around 20 Creeper Eggs. Dragon Eggs can be produced in two ways: either through a chemical line in the LCR to transform spawn eggs into Dragon Eggs, or by using the Draconic Bee with Thaumcraft infusion.