116: Construction of the power plant

After setting it up, Tian Ming transformed the surrounding rocks into a quantum state and flew out from underground.

He then sealed the exposed diversion pipes on the surface.

The preparation work was done, and now they just waited for Shen Yi and his team's design.

By this time, night had fallen, and the Shelter was exceptionally quiet.

Tian Ming hovered in the air, flew directly out of the Shelter, and plunged into the mountain range.

Soon, over ten tons of pure copper flew back to the Shelter with him.

He transformed into a human-shaped mining machine, whose advantage was not needing element enrichment in the earth's crust.

He could collect dispersed metals, and when Tian Ming collected them, he would also go far away from the Shelter to collect.

Collecting under the Shelter's crust could easily make the crust unstable, and if it collapsed, the gains would not outweigh the losses.

He flew more than a dozen times in a row, collecting hundreds of tons of copper, iron, and aluminum.

Next, these elements would be transformed into large cables, wires, and so on for the power grid.

In the future, for the maintenance work of repairs and patching in the Shelter, Tian Ming did not plan to personally intervene.

He would only provide raw materials, and the rest would be handed over to other personnel of the Shelter.

After a night of busy work, various specifications of rolled wires were piled up into a small mountain.

The power upgrade work would now be handed over to Shen Yi.

Early the next morning, Shen Yi and the expert team brought by Meng Xian arrived at this area.

Looking at the mountain of cables and wires, Meng Xian fell into contemplation.

The boss's efficiency was too fast, simply unbelievable.

"Brother Shen, did our boss complete all of these overnight?" Meng Xian asked in astonishment.

Shen Yi nodded and said, "Yes, he worked on it all night last night, and now he's probably catching up on sleep.

We'll be quite busy next, so let's start by replacing all the cables in the entire Shelter and getting all the buildings powered up."

Meng Xian nodded and said, "Alright, I'll go find people to lay them."

"General Manager Meng, have Lin Yue issue the task notice.

This is an urgent job, set the labor cost higher, and strive to complete the power upgrade wiring within three days," Shen Yi said.

Meng Xian nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go find Lin Yue now.

But I'm also a bit puzzled, since the boss made the wires, why didn't he just lay them out?"

Shen Yi smiled indifferently: "He's not a professional, and if problems arise later, he'd have to maintain them.

Our boss would never do things that we can do ourselves.

He will only step in to help us solve problems that we cannot handle.

Ultimately, the Shelter belongs to everyone, not just him."

Meng Xian nodded slightly and said, "Hmm, that makes a lot of sense.

Then I'll go.

You all measure the data here first and quickly create the 3D engineering model for the power plant.

Also, compile a list of all the necessary equipment, preferably within two days.

This type of small power plant is very mature."

Shen Yi nodded and led the expert team into intense work.

They first conducted detailed measurements and evaluations of the Shelter's terrain, building distribution, and power demands, then designed the cable specifications, lengths, routes, and distribution based on this data.

Throughout this process, Tian Ming never appeared.

He wasn't sleeping; he was sitting on the edge of the roof of the Shelter's Central Building, lost in thought.

Looking at the busy crowd below the Shelter, he felt very gratified.

In principle, he could completely dictate all matters, big and small, within the Shelter.

However, as a boss and leader, the most taboo thing is to do everything personally.

Once the power plant is completed and operational, he can relax for quite a long time again.

Just thinking about it made Tian Ming find it interesting.

Two days passed quickly, and the Shelter's power upgrade work was proceeding at full throttle.

At the same time, Shen Yi and the expert team had also completed the 3D model design of the power plant and the compilation of the required equipment list.

It wasn't until the third day that Shen Yi came to Tian Ming with a tablet computer storing the 3D engineering blueprints.

To solve the energy problem as quickly as possible, the construction of the plant and key equipment still had to be done by Tian Ming.

With detailed 3D blueprints, Tian Ming directly started construction, and in less than half a day, the power plant building rose from the ground and was directly completed.

As for equipment, such as transformers, distribution boxes, controllers, and so on.

If there was no ready-made equipment, Tian Ming would help solve it.

He directly installed three 30-megawatt steam turbines inside the plant, followed by the isolated heat exchange devices.

Large steam generators would boil while exchanging heat with the molten salt in the heat conducting pipes, generating power to drive the steam turbines to generate electricity.

The molten salt diversion pipes had excellent insulation properties, with the returning temperature still above 200 degrees Celsius after heat exchange.

The boiling point of water increases with pressure, and this power plant can only handle a maximum of 3 steam turbines.

More than that is not feasible because excessive heat exchange would cause the molten salt in the diversion pipes to solidify, leading to blockage.

To ensure no mishaps, Shen Yi also incorporated some redundancy in the design.

The steam generator would first be heated by hydrogen to the rated temperature and pressure, then use molten salt for heat exchange to stabilize the power output.

The molten salt inside is a certain proportion of alkaline earth or metal halides.

Such as common nitrates, sodium nitrate, and sulfates.

Through the molten salt circulation pump, the hot molten salt circulates back and forth between the diversion pipes and the underground high-temperature rock layers, using geothermal energy to generate electricity.

The entire power plant design was led by Shen Yi, and the construction was guided by Tian Ming.

Once the steam turbines started running, Tian Ming no longer needed to manage it.

This whole process took a full five days.

For Tian Ming, these five days were difficult, but for ordinary people, building a power plant in five days could not even be described as a divine feat.

The peak power generation capacity of the Shelter was pushed up to nearly 100 megawatts (for context, 100 megawatts equals 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity produced per hour).

The power plant will not always operate at full capacity, and with the original energy storage battery array, the Shelter's energy went from being stretched thin to being abundant.

With an ample power supply, the quality of life in the Shelter began to undergo a qualitative change.

Whether it was heating or the efficiency of other tasks, everything immediately improved.

Furthermore, with sufficient energy, the next step is to develop the Shelter's industry, with the primary considerations being food and housing.

All the experts from Hua Xin Group who specialized in greenhouses were also placed under Su Rou's management after they arrived.

The Shelter's greenhouses had already begun construction.

They only briefly consulted Tian Ming, and then they started working on their own, finding materials by sending large transport helicopters to the city and solving problems themselves, without bothering Tian Ming at all.

Indeed, energy utilization is the fundamental limit to the development of civilization.

This is roughly how electricity is generated; don't criticize, the principle is correct.