A recent thread on Mike Owen's debate board has raised some interesting design possibilities. Kurt Aldinger came up with a simple way to design electric power plants that can be tailored to fit any size of car, trike or cycle. Specifics of his "multi-cellular" power plants are as follows: each cell costs $300, weighs 80 lbs and has 1 DP. Each cell also has 300 power factors. These cells take up 1/3 space each and can be grouped together to build power plants of any size.

The specifics for car and cycle power plants are listed below.

Plant	Cost	Weight	Spaces	DP	Power Factors
Small cycle	$500	100 lbs	1	2	400
Medium cycle	$1,000	150 lbs	1	3	600
Large cycle	$1,500	175 lbs	2	4	800
Super cycle	$2,000	200 lbs	2	5	1,000
Super trike	$3,000	250 lbs	3	6	1,200
Small car	$500	500 lbs	3	5	800
Medium car	$1,000	700 lbs	4	8	1,400
Large car	$2,000	900 lbs	5	10	2,000
Super car	$3,000	1,100 lbs	6	12	2,600
Sport	$6,000	1,000 lbs	6	12	3,000
T-cat	$12,000	2,000 lbs	8	15	6,700

The most efficient way to build multi-cellular power plants is to use the cells in groups of three, as the plant size is rounded up. For example, an MC plant with two cells would take up one space, instead of 2/3 space. A number of generic MC power plants are listed below as a basis for comparison.

1) 2-cell power plant: $600, 160 lbs, 1 space, 2 DP, 600 power factors

2) 3-cell power plant: $900, 240 lbs, 1 space, 3 DP, 900 power factors

3) 4-cell power plant: $1,200, 320 lbs, 2 spaces, 4 DP, 1,200 power factors

4) 5-cell power plant: $1,500, 400 lbs, 3 spaces, 5 DP, 1,500 power factors

5) 9-cell power plant: $2,700, 720 lbs, 3 spaces, 9 DP, 2,700 power factors

6) 10-cell power plant: $3,000, 800 lbs, 4 spaces, 10 DP, 3,000 power factors

7) 25-cell power plant: $7,500, 2,000 lbs, 9 spaces, 25 DP, 7,500 power factors

In general, MC power plants are less efficient that cycle/trike plants and much more efficient than car plants. This increased efficiency would allow the use of a more powerful plant for a given weight. Conversely, a smaller MC plant with the same power factors as an ordinary electric plant would enable a car to carry more armor and/or weapons.

All applicable accessories (overdrive, platinum catalysts, superconductors, HTMs, etc) can be used with MC power plants.

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