Table of Contents
Encyclopedia
Overall Primers
XCOM Databases
TOP SECRET CLASSIFIED REQUIRES SECURITY CLEARANCE OMEGA
- Monsterpedia
- Weaponpedia
- Armorpedia
- Equipedia
END TOP SECRET CLASSIFIED
Specific Entries
Unorganized Notes
Cars, motorcycles, trucks and most other internal-combustion-engine systems run mostly on a hybrid of electric and diesel power, with engines emitting a dull whine as they operate under the power of the electric engine and a much heartier thrum as the combustion engine kicks in. Large trucks, ships, trains, and other vehicles likely run on a combination of electrical power and hydrogen fuel cells.
Wind power is more common than it was in the previous century, but only moderately; areas with too little (or too much) wind are unlikely to make significant use of it. However, the previous fan-shaped design has been replaced with an improved cylindrical flywheel version that suffers less damage from very high winds, making it more viable in more locations as well as allowing multiple levels of fans to be stacked atop each other for maximum efficiency with minimum space consumption.
Solar power is nearly ubiquitous - a UDT-connectable solar panel for recharging any UDT-recharged device is readily available on the market, and solar sheeting can be installed on the roofs of most buildings with a decent level of efficiency. Experiments in microwave beam satellites (satellites that collect sunlight from outside the earth's atmosphere, then transmit it to Earth through a powerful microwave beam) have been fruitful, but at the moment only a few plants are operational as there are few places willing to have a radiation cannon's target zone right next to their house, and the effects of microwave beam misalignment have been proven too hazardous to locate in populated areas.
Nuclear power has been advanced to the point where nuclear power plants are uneasily accepted in large populated cities (although the worst parts of town - and the ones where prisons and other depositories of unpleasantry tend to end up - tend to be the ones close to the power plant.) There are both fusion and fission plants in use; the fusion plants are newer and shinier, whereas fission plants are often found in places where nobody has chosen to budget for an upgrade, or in places that were once thriving but that now cannot expect to afford one.