you dont think this would be efficient on aquilo?
"In mythology, Aquilo is the Roman god of the north wind, storms, and winter."
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-432
" A howling wind chills you to the bone and gently rocks the iceberg you are sitting on."
wouldnt it make more sense to scale it with atmospheric pressure?
on the other hand, i made mine only work on nauvis, but added a setting for that

... while I do appreciate you making an argument firmly rooted in both classical mythology and Factorioic game lore, I, for one, have decided on an approach that leans a bit more towards the intended game balance, as well as overall realism!

Long story short, solar and wind power ultimately derive from sunlight. Of course, some atmospheric pressure is needed for effectively "capturing" and circulating the energy of sunlight across the surface in the form of wind, but scaling wind power according to pressure alone makes no sense at all. It has to scale in some way according to both. Actually, because a thinner atmosphere looses more energy to space, but a thicker one creates a more uniform climate with relatively less wind, ignoring composition, there is apparently some ideal range of pressure for wind power. But that's complicated.

I decided to scale according to solar power only, because it achieves a really nice compromise of being simple, roughly realistic and also consistently balanced in relation to solar panels.

I did also add a requirement for heating, because the turbine is a mechanical structure, and one for a minimum of 5% solar power, since it is difficult for weak winds to overcome basic friction even with gearing and load control. Perhaps I could loosen or remove those requirements, or at least create an option for it, so the turbines could be minimally functional on Aquilo, just like the solar panels. I am at least considering that.

thanks for the answer.
if you decide to add a setting for it, feel free to copy my code for parsing that as a string, for example "100-3000"

local pressure_range = settings.startup["ownly_windturbines_pressure"].value
local pressure_min, pressure_max = string.match(pressure_range, "^(-?%d+)%-(%-?%d+)$")

pressure_min = tonumber(pressure_min)
pressure_max = tonumber(pressure_max)

if not pressure_min or not pressure_max or pressure_max < pressure_min then
pressure_min = 1000
pressure_max = 1000
end

prototype.surface_conditions = mods["space-age"] and {
{
property = "pressure",
min = pressure_min,
max = pressure_max,
}
} or nil

Thank you, it's pretty neat, I like the compactness of it.

I will look into the balance of my mod in the near future.

Just uploaded v.1.1.0! I created a simple option that relaxes some of the entity/surface requirements so the turbines can be built (and are useful) on Aquilo. Fixed an error while I was it...

... while I do appreciate you making an argument firmly rooted in both classical mythology and Factorioic game lore, I, for one, have decided on an approach that leans a bit more towards the intended game balance, as well as overall realism!

Long story short, solar and wind power ultimately derive from sunlight. Of course, some atmospheric pressure is needed for effectively "capturing" and circulating the energy of sunlight across the surface in the form of wind, but scaling wind power according to pressure alone makes no sense at all. It has to scale in some way according to both. Actually, because a thinner atmosphere looses more energy to space, but a thicker one creates a more uniform climate with relatively less wind, ignoring composition, there is apparently some ideal range of pressure for wind power. But that's complicated.

I decided to scale according to solar power only, because it achieves a really nice compromise of being simple, roughly realistic and also consistently balanced in relation to solar panels.

I did also add a requirement for heating, because the turbine is a mechanical structure, and one for a minimum of 5% solar power, since it is difficult for weak winds to overcome basic friction even with gearing and load control. Perhaps I could loosen or remove those requirements, or at least create an option for it, so the turbines could be minimally functional on Aquilo, just like the solar panels. I am at least considering that.

Wrong:

Wind power does not derive from sunlight... how come there is sun outside but there is no wind, and how come it is night outside and wind blows like there is no tomorrow.

Athmospheric pressure it is what contols the wind.

Hi Co5teL, thanks for input. I felt I didn't really have the energy for it, but then decided, to heck with it! Let me give you an answer:

In order for there to be any movement of air at all, there has to be an energy source that can heat up the atmosphere. In the case of Earth's surface, about 99,97% of the energy comes from the sun (initially in the form of broad spectrum light), and about 0,03% from residual heat + nuclear decay of heavy elements in the core. So the main source of energy, by far, is sunlight.

Much of the sunlight and re-radiated heat from the surface is absorbed by the atmosphere (depending on its thickness and composition), which consequently heats it up (the molecules move and collide against each other faster). Due to the spherical shape of a planet, as well as its irregular terrain features, differences in temperature arise, which creates uneven, vertical movement of air and thus differences in pressure. And from that, wind is produced, which wind turbines can harness for energy. So wind power is just an indirect way of harnessing the energy of sunlight - one that requires an atmosphere.

This is where you misunderstand things: Atmospheric pressure by itself does nothing. It is not a source of energy and it does not produce any force. There has to be pressure differentials across the surface, to move air from one location to another! The amount of energy that can be harnessed by wind turbines does depend on global atmospheric pressure as well, since the energy of sunlight must be captured by the atmosphere and then converted into the movement of air; but this movement derives from sunlight, because sunlight is the source of energy. No sunlight = no wind.

As I more or less wrote, I did think about taking both solar irradiation AND atmospheric pressure into consideration when calculating the power output of the turbines; but it seems too complicated for me to model, and this level of realism doesn't even seem appropriate for Factorio, in my estimation. So I merely set boundaries on the required surface pressure and let the output scale with surface solar energy.

On a side note, I have also thought about making the power output variable in a way that differs from solar panels (e.g. making it peak in the afternoon or evening like it often does in real life), but I am not sure I can write reliable and performant code for that, and I personally don't feel it is essential to the mod. We will have to see if I ever create an option for that.

I hope you find my answer helpful!