Horror World Problems [closed]

Question

I have left Super Dee behind, and is now focusing to truly build a world. In my new world, there are skeletons, vampires, zombies, witches, etc. Everywhere, people bring guns in their backpacks to keep them safe.

People have built auto-turrets to keep them safe. Problem is, the government says that economy has lowered, so people are running out of money to buy generators to power the turrets. My question is: Is there an easier way to power generators that doesn't need a lot of going outside, since it's dangerous there?

To be clear, the weather here is quite gloomy, because clouds are covering the 2 suns here, thanks to the witches. For communication, the radiation of phones, tablets, and other gadgets attract the evil scientists (yes, there are those too), so it's back to the telegraph and Morse code. Oh, old school telephones work too. For transportation, cars, motorbikes, or even trains don't work, the zombies have incredible hearing to hear the vrooming, so it's either the bike, or the old walking technique. Also, the people here have no greenery. All covered in oil, there are killer mechs too. Thank goodness, scientists have developed Invisible Cloaks. Each house has one. Only monsters with x-ray vision such as the killer mechs and witches(with that kind of spell) can see through these things. FIY, there are also evil spirits, dragons, etc. Any kind of monster you can think of! So, with that info, is there a way to power up generators for the auto-turrets?

Answer 1

Renewable power

Power comes in a great many forms. Your world seems to have oil in copious amounts, but it isn't the best power source. Especially unrefined it's dirty, smelly and not very powerful. The second problem is getting it. You need to get out to get it, or have big installations to get it from the ground. Running around is a security risk, while having big equipment around will require more space and has more points of failure, requiring more effort and parts to keep running.

What you want is something relatively passive, requiring low amount of maintenance and resources. Also, you don't want it to run out or have to run out for the resource. Depending how you build, it can be done with renewable resources.

Solar

Make no mistake. Solar is still a good option. Solar power still generates a lot of energy on cloudy days. So only if the clouds are really heavy, it'll make solar power unreliable. Problem is storage. You need batteries to store excess energy, if any. This way you can power them at night, but only some current experimental batteries barely lose quality over time. Batteries are difficult to produce and maintain.

Wind

Wind can generate a lot of power. Traditional wind generators are tallband big for a lot of power, and require a ton of maintenance. They are also not able to be used in low or high wind conditions. However, there are idea's tomake it a whole lot cheaper and reliable. 2 kites can go into the air connected to a generator by steel cables. By pulling harder on one kite, the generator will turn one way and generate power. After a certain amount of pulling, it'll need to pull the other way. The kites can be automated to search for the optimal wind layers, because even if there's no wind on the ground, there's wind somewhere. Even if it breaks, a kite and steel cable are relatively cheap conpared to many other power generating methods. They are probably even able to operate in bad weather. Downsides are that you need a lot of data about the air and automation to pull this off, but if it's ready you have relatively stable and cheap power generation. As you have access to fully automated turrets that apparently can distinguish friend from foe, the wind technology is certainly possible and relatively simple by comparison. You might be easy to spot though.

Tidal

Tidal forces are dependable, near constant and with the available technologies easy. You do require a shoreline on a large sea and open yourself up to water related disasters, but most of the time you can be relatively safe there.

Water generation

Access to running water? A water wheel (or dam if you somehow can manage) can give plenty of power. If you're not too close to the source, it can generate it reliably for the whole year.

Human powered

Grab a bike, remove wheel, add generator. Paddle in teams for 24/7 generation or use batteries. Requires quite a lot of effort, but you don’t have to leave your house.

Geothermal

The Earth has a thin crust and then is hot. There are many places where this heat comes to the surface naturally and stable. To use this for power you often still need big installations.

Bioenergy

There are possibly options to have organisms produce it for us. There is a lot of research into seaweed for example that might generate it for us, but the exact way they do it is lost on me. Possibly they just burn it instead of getting it to generate power directly. Regardless, it will have trouble as it requires the sun to florish.

Electrical defences

As an addition to turrets, you can have electric fences. If touched, they can fry an enemy. This will be a 'renewable' defensive measure, not relying on ammo. It might not be effective against everything, but it can help.

Conclusion

Using one or more of these methods you can have reliable power that doesn't risk you going outside often. Renewable power often doesn't require as much effort as refining oil or having to go out further and further to cut down trees. It is probably the best way to power yourself.

Answer 2

I would suggest nuclear generators. There is actually work to develop miniature nuclear generators. Before the apocalypse, your setting could have developed these, and scattered them all over the place in bunkers. They last a long time, and don't need a refill anytime soon, with enough power for your turrets.

It would also be very fitting to the setting. You can even have groups fight over Uranium deposits, if you want.