I think the corrent ways to generate power work great for the early game but once you have a bigger base you end up with either dozens of panels, turbines, or reactors just to keep the lights running. (This is extra bad on multiplayer where you might be charging multiple Tadpoles).
I think we should either unlock better generators or upgrades for exisiting ones that boost their output so we don’t need to build so many.
Maybe a good solution would be to look at the power consumer side - there is no reason why an idle base with everything on standby would consume 100 power.
It seems most base modules (fabricator, docking, mod station, processor, biolab) consume the same amound of power regardless if they are in standby or actively working. If you were to build them only when you actually need them, you would save 90% of power. Also the power cost for lights is questionable - a thermal generator with optimal placement produces 16 power, so just enough to run 8 large lights? Don’t they have LEDs in the future? Only the old light bulbs could need that much power.
in the first line, lights should consume MUCH less of power, I dont build those as I dont want to build gazillion generators only to turn on few lights inside of base
advanced generators later on would be surely still cool, it would make environments around bases bit prettier as we wouldnt need to make fields of thermo generators or collumns of turbines, even if generator of 3x output would cost 5x equivalent of resources or whatever
base biofuel generator seems to be also pathetically weak, so it could have some buff on its own too, especially since, unlike other ones, it needs maintanance and resource gathering
nuclear generator isnt in game yet either, or I found nothing on that at least, I hope it will be added even if I prefer care-free options as thermal, solar and turbine ones