🎯 The core idea
Coal power is the bridge out of biomass burners and into the mid-game, and a 100% efficient plant comes down to one clean ratio: two Water Extractors clocked at 75% can fully supply four Coal Generators, giving you 300 MW from a single Mark 1 miner's worth of coal — and the same ratio tiles cleanly to any size plant you need.
- free costs nothing
- cheap small cost
- setup needs preparation
- grind pays off slowly
- skip the thing to stop doing
The base design: 4 generators, 2 extractors, 300 MW
This design uses four Coal Generators and two Water Extractors to produce 300 MW while consuming 60 coal per minute — exactly what a single Mark 1 miner on a normal coal node provides. Per the Satisfactory Wiki, each Coal-Powered Generator produces 75 MW and burns 15 coal per minute at 100% clock speed, so four generators cleanly total 300 MW and 60 coal/min, matching the video's numbers precisely. Build it directly on or very near water, close to a coal node, since suitable locations exist near every starting area on the map.
Coal logistics: conveyor lifts feeding a manifold
Coal reaches each generator through conveyor lifts placed on the solid input, routed underneath and behind the generators into the gap between platform levels. From there, a splitter manifold distributes coal from a single supply line to every generator. Once your logistics and power lines are connected — including the miner supplying coal — two local biomass burners are enough to jump-start the system; once the first generator kicks on, the whole plant becomes self-sustaining.
Tuning water extractors to exactly match demand
Each generator consumes 45 water per minute (180 total across four), while each Water Extractor provides 120 water per minute at 100% clock speed — confirmed by the Satisfactory Wiki — meaning two extractors at full speed would overproduce by 60 water/min. The fix is clocking both extractors down to 75%, which supplies exactly 180 water/min combined while cutting their power draw, rather than running one at 100% and the other at 50%, which wastes efficiency for no benefit.
The video actually favors keeping the 1:2 extractor-to-generator ratio even at scale, since four extractors at 75% (54.8 MW) draws less power than three extractors at 100% (60 MW) — the tradeoff is one extra building for meaningfully better efficiency and cleaner symmetry.
Headlift and the water tower trick
Headlift is the vertical distance a pump can push fluid upward through a pipe, and per the Satisfactory Wiki, a Water Extractor provides 10 m of headlift on its own — roughly two and a half foundations of height. For taller vertical designs, the video demonstrates a water tower trick: fill a tall storage tank at the top of a structure before turning generators on, and because headlift is effectively ignored once water is already sitting at a given height within a connected pipe network, the whole plant can run without needing dedicated Pipeline Pumps, as long as the tank never runs dry.
Scaling up: from 300 MW to a 3,600 MW mega-plant
The same core ratio scales to a 48-generator, 3,600 MW plant built as three banks of 16 generators, fed by a vehicle-based logistics system where tractors haul coal from a remote mining site to truck stations at each wing. All the water in a plant this size runs through a single unified pipe network, with headlift for the entire structure provided by one water tower using the same fill-before-power-on trick described above.
This mega-plant design is likely enough to carry a save well into the mid-game, potentially until fuel or turbofuel power is available, without needing to build coal infrastructure anywhere else on the map.
Quick answers: layout, blueprints, and fixing a power shortage
If you're wondering how many water extractors you need per coal generator, the answer is the 1:2 ratio covered above — one extractor for every two generators, tuned to 75% clock speed. This is the best coal power setup for a beginner in Satisfactory because it's the simplest tutorial-friendly blueprint to automate power from a single miner: build the plant layout once, and you can copy-paste it as a foundation blueprint to extend or duplicate whenever you need to automate more power. If you're mid-game and hit a power shortage, the fastest fix isn't a new power source — it's just tiling this same coal plant layout again next to your existing one, since the design scales cleanly all the way up to the 3,600 MW mega-plant shown later in this guide.
How this guide was fact-checked
The Satisfactory Wiki confirms every core ratio in this guide: a Coal-Powered Generator produces 75 MW and consumes 45 m³/min of water and 15 coal/min at 100% clock speed (so four generators exactly total 300 MW, 180 water/min, and 60 coal/min, matching the video precisely), and a Water Extractor's default output is 120 m³/min with 10 m of headlift, also matching the video's stated figures exactly. The wiki additionally confirms the video's larger-scale claim that three Water Extractors can supply eight Coal-Powered Generators without exceeding a Mark 1 Pipeline's 300 m³/min throughput limit. This video is from Satisfactory's 1.0 release (September 2024); these are foundational building stats rather than balance-patch-sensitive numbers, so they remain accurate as of this writing, though always worth spot-checking against the in-game tooltip if a future update changes base building stats.
What this guide doesn't answer
This video is scoped to coal power specifically — it briefly shows a petroleum coke-fueled variant of the same design but doesn't cover fuel or turbofuel power generators in detail, nor does it cover Nuclear Power, both later-game power sources with different ratios and logistics needs.
Frequently asked
How many water extractors do I need per coal generator in Satisfactory?
The standard ratio is one Water Extractor for every two Coal Generators, both clocked to 75% speed. This exactly matches consumption: four generators use 180 m³/min of water total, and two extractors at 75% clock speed provide exactly 180 m³/min. At larger scale, the Satisfactory Wiki confirms three extractors at 100% can supply eight generators without exceeding Mark 1 pipe throughput, though the 1:2 ratio remains slightly more power-efficient overall.
How much power does a 100% efficient coal power plant produce?
A single 4-generator block produces exactly 300 MW while consuming 60 coal/min, matching a single Mark 1 miner on a normal coal node. This design is fully tileable, so doubling it to 8 generators gives 600 MW, and the guide's largest example scales all the way to a 48-generator, 3,600 MW plant using the same core ratio.
Why do I need pipeline pumps for a coal power plant, and can I avoid them?
Pumps resolve headlift, the vertical distance fluid can travel upward through a pipe. A Water Extractor alone provides 10 m of headlift. For taller designs, a water tower trick lets you skip dedicated pumps entirely: fill a tall storage tank at the top of the structure before switching generators on, since headlift is effectively ignored once water already sits at a given height within a connected pipe network.
What's the most efficient water extractor clock speed for a coal power plant?
For a 2-extractor, 4-generator plant, clock both extractors to 75% rather than running one at 100% and the other at 50% — splitting the reduction evenly draws less total power for the same 180 m³/min output. At larger scale, four extractors at 75% (54.8 MW) still draws less power than three extractors at 100% (60 MW), so the 1:2 ratio is the more power-efficient choice even though it uses one extra building.
Can I automate power in Satisfactory without babysitting my coal plant?
Yes — once logistics and power lines are connected, including the miner supplying coal, two local biomass burners are enough to jump-start the system. After the first generator kicks on, the whole plant becomes self-sustaining and requires no further manual intervention as long as coal and water supply keep pace with consumption.
Read next
Satisfactory Fuel Power Guide: Fuel, Turbofuel, Rocket Fuel & Ionized Fuel
Satisfactory Nuclear Power Guide (Uranium Chain & Waste Handling)
Satisfactory Power Guide: Biomass Burners to Nuclear
A complete walkthrough of Satisfactory's power generators, from early Biomass Burners through Coal, Fuel, and Nuclear plants, with tips for keeping the grid stable as demand grows.
Satisfactory Pipes & Fluid Mechanics Guide: Headlift, Flow Rates & Fixes
A complete walkthrough of Satisfactory fluid mechanics: pipe tiers and flow rates, headlift and dynamic pressure, splitting between pipe tiers, valve mistakes, buffers, priority junctions, and how to stop manifolds from sloshing.