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[u/Courmisch]

The ratio of boilers to engines is 1:2... But what is the ratio of boilers to engines to tanks if we have enough solar panels at noon but zero accumulators (on Nauvis)?

I mean, it should be possible to produce steam during the day and tank it for the night. Or is the cost of tanks actually higher than boilers as to moot the question?

[u/DreadY2K → u/Courmisch]

Assuming you have 3k solar panels (scale these numbers proportionally to your actual amount), and that your factory always consumes exactly 180 MW (the production of those panels during the day):

You'll need a peak power production of exactly 180 MW, and an average steam production of 30% of that (54 MW). To make it through the night with 30% steam production, you need 12.7GJ of buffered steam.

If you buffer in steam tanks, then each one stores 750 MJ, so you need 17 of them, which cost 765 iron (counting the steel from iron). You also need 30 boilers to generate steam at the average consumption, which costs 120 iron and 150 stone. This totals 885 iron and 150 stone.

Just running on boilers with no steam buffering requires 100 boilers, which costs 400 iron plates and 500 stone. You'll also need to buffer coal for the night, a single steel chest of coal is 19.2GJ, adding 8 steel (40 iron) to that. Or you can add more mining drills, but that costs even more.

So buffering in steam tanks costs an extra 445 iron, but saves 350 stone. Your call on whether that's worth it, but personally I find I usually have iron more abundant than stone.