Hey, interesting mod!
Haven't managed to play it for real yet, just doing some testing in sandbox and I found that you can very much cover the dredging platforms with bricks/concrete and you can very much place offshore pumps on that (and power poles/undies), so you don't need the battery infrastructure.

Although I don't know how that would break things as by the time you get the dredger, you have batteries and they're more energy dense to transport with containers than boiler fuels anyway. The footprint is smaller too. Still, the changelog says you need batteries, so I'm saying you don't.
Frankly, just chuck some solar panels on there. Doesn't really need to run all the time. And if it does, some modded panels will do.

I guess the point of batteries must be that you actually need to process the output directly on platform because it's such a bother to move about. Otherwise, just the solars would do. So, make a compact setup with acid and chuck output into containers then onto cargo ships. Tricky, I like that.

Although, I just checked, you don't need on site processing and it's not that difficult. With two fast inserters you can easily keep up with dredger output. You do need a continuous convoy of cargo ships but it's doable. Add some rocket fuel as, well, fuel, and it's chugging along without issue. Deliver to mainland 100 per ship and process accordingly. And with that setup you can power the dredger just with solar panels and batteries, full power. Yeah, it's likely quite expensive to run, fuel-wise, but it's doable.
It's also really annoying if you have the "honk" mod, which adds (among others) foghorns to ships. The continuous honking is... vexing.

Please, don't misunderstand my ramblings as criticism. I think it's a neat mechanic, just spitballing things.

Thanks for the feedback!

About offshore pumps - that is a good point which I hadn't realised, but I agree that I don't really think it matters since steam power would take up so much more space on the platform, and you'd still have to transport coal which is less dense. Solar panels - sure, but you won't get maximum usage out of the platform, due to both power and space problems. So you'll have to spend much more time setting up more platforms. That's a tradeoff that I'm happy to leave to the player :)

Yes, you don't even have to process on-site. You also don't have to ever use containers in the game... I don't think I can (or should) dictate how the game should be played to an extreme level - if you are playing it then hopefully it is because you want to try the challenges and not 'cheese' past them. Hopefully the non-stackable and non-containerizable nature of the nodules makes my intent clear :) I'm certainly considering being more preventative, like spilling items or deleting them if they get where I don't think they should be allowed, but it isn't a high priority, and would have some performance impact. Similar for things like robots carrying containers - currently I prevent the player from adding logistic requests for containers, but there's nothing stopping bots picking them up from active provider chests, for example.

Indeed, that's what I got! You can do this the brute force way of a massive fleet of ships grabbing the nodules 100 at a time, with solar panels and accumulators giving you all the power you need for that (which still needs pretty much the entire platform with just enough leftover for transport belts and inserters).
Or you can go the smart route, deliver the batteries and sulfuric acid, process onsite and dump results into containers and ships. Since that requires a bunch of the packers, it's a tough challenge in compact design. For me, anyway. Still haven't figured it out, not that I tried much. Had some other tests to do.

Anyhow, this is a neat mod and the entire pack is also really fun just to test in sandbox. Once I have some time, I'll gladly play all the way.
Are you planning on adding more worldgen? Is there a roadmap? Or is it more fluid with concepts added as they strike?

it's a tough challenge in compact design

Indeed... hopefully not too tough! It gets easier if you only have 2 rather than 3 chemical plants, but then you are losing a third of the potential output. Waiting for more feedback to confirm that the difficulty is in the right place.

Are you planning on adding more worldgen? Is there a roadmap? Or is it more fluid with concepts added as they strike?

I'm not currently planning on adding any major features, like resources or map features - I'm expecting from here on out it will just be recipe adjustments and balance changes. But if inspiration strikes or I get a good suggestion, I guess something new might be added. I'm wary of making it any more complex though.