On nearly any vs forum you will find the topic of Imperial power generation to be hotly debated. The reason why such a topic is so debated is because the result from such a debate will undoubtably have a profound impact on other debates ranging from ISD vs Enterprise to whether or not the Death Star uses a DET or Chain Reaction. No-matter what the out come of the debate is one side will cry foul. Because of that fact this article will look at the different types of power generation in Star Wars and whether or not it is supported by canon facts as well as the implications.

Types of Power Generation:

Fusion:

Fusion is the process of combining two light atoms to form a single heavy atom and in the process realeasing vast amounts of energy. While a fusion reaction is hardly the most energetic type of power generating process it is nothing to sneeze at. Deuterium fusion realises 6.2E14 J/kg.

In canon Star Wars there is plenty of evidence that fusion is used as a power source. First lets look at what the ROTS novel has to say:

"Children on Tatooine tell each other of the dragons that live inside the suns; smaller cousins of the sun-dragons are supposed to live inside the fusion furnaces that power everything from starships to Podracers"

-ROTS Novelization, p.25

There are a couple of useful facts we can gain from this quote. First it is quite clear that star ships are in fact powered by fusion power. Next we learn that fusion reactors in Star Wars are small enough to fit into a pod-racer. Third and prehaps most importantly, the fusion power in Star Wars is like that of a sun, which means it uses H-H, H-He or some similar type of fusion and not some exotic form of fusion that some Star Wars fans have put forth.

There is also the matter of the ANH novel which describes the explosion of the first Death Star:

"Space filled temporarily with trillions of microscopic metal fragments, propelled past the retreating ships by the liberated energy of a small artificial sun."

-ANH Novelization, Chapter 12

The use of :small artificial sun" clearly implies that the power source of the Death Star is fusion based with roughly the power of a small sun. Unfortunately, this has to be one of the most debated quote in all of Star Wars, partly because it is somewhat ambiguous and partly because in vs circles many people have invested interests in discrediting this quote for the reasons out lined in the introduction. These debates have primarly centered around what a "small artificial sun". There are several agruments, these arguments are:

1. The word sun does not mean fusion but could refer to a non-fusion powered star, such as a neutron star.

2. This is a literary device and should not be taken literaly.

The first one is obviously false because while all suns are stars a sun is a specific type of star that is powered by nuclear fusion. A sun can only refer to a fusion powered star. As for the second it is not a simile because there is no "as" or "like". It is also to acurate to be a metaphor so once again we must take the statement at face value.

Based on those two quotes we can see the fusion power is well supported by canon.

Hypermatter:

Hypermatter is a power source that made its first apearence in the Non-canon Star Wars Increadable Cross Sections and has since been frequently used in the EU but has never made an apearence in canon Star Wars. This means that the concept of hypermatter is an entirely non-canon concept.

Hypermatter reactors is discibed as an anihalation reactors. This means that the Hypermatter anhalates either with it self, regular matter or something entirly different to release large amounts of energy.

Power:

A critical part of examining any reactor technology is the power out put of said reactor.

Fusion:

Due to a lack of information pinning down the precise power output of a fusion reactor in Star Wars is impossible. We can however, infer power of some and place reasonable limits on others.

"Space filled temporarily with trillions of microscopic metal fragments, propelled past the retreating ships by the liberated energy of a small artificial sun."

-ANH Novelization, Chapter 12

From this ANH novel quote the Death Star explosion is discirbed as having the energy of a small artificial sun that was liberated by Luke's torpedo. While we don't know if and how an artificial sun differes from a natural one we can use it as a bench mark. Our sun, which is a medium sized sun has 3.85E26 watts of power which is quite a reasonable upper limit considering that the sun in question was described as small. Bear in mind that 3.85E26 watts is an upper limit and in reality the reactor would probalby be less powerful by atleast an order of maginitude.

With Star Destroyers things become more difficult. However we can get a decent limits based on fuel used. Acording to St-vs-SW.net's Volumetrics pages and ISD has a volume of 53,942,400 m^3. Now if we assume that a star Destroyer uses Deterium as its fuel we can calculate how much space the tanks would take up. Lets also assume that the deterium is being stored at 12 times normal density (any denser and they risk fusion through comression). Now the density of deuterium is 0.180 kg/m^3 and 2.16 kg/m^3 at 12 times normal density. If we make the ridiculous assumption that half of an ISD is just a fuel tank we have 58,257,792kg of deuterium and if we assume that a ISD goes one month between refuelling we have 22.476kg being fused each second. that works out to 13,935,120,000,000,000w or 13.93 peta watts. However that required making several high end assumptions including making an ISD be a flying fuel tank. A much more reasonable assumption would be a tank 150m by 150m by 150m and having enough fuel for at least a three month deployment we get 0.9375kg of fuel per second use which is 581,250,000,000,000w or 581 Tera watts for a more reasonable estimate.

Hypermatter:

Considering how hypermatter is non-canon there is no way to estimate its power from canon, however when analysing a non-canon peice of technology non-canon resources become available. In the EU the Death Star uses a Direct Energy Transfer Superlaser instead of the chain reaction used in canon Star Wars which would mean the Death Star reactor which is described as a Hypermatter reactor would have a lower limit of 1E30J give or take. As for a ISD Star Destroyer.net estimates a minimum of 1E35W for an ISD based on the Star Wars Technical Journal. Please keep in mind that these number are derived through non-canon means.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately due to the lack of knowledge on this issue we can only draw a few well supported conclusions and a few more speculative ones. In fact there is only two relevant quotes in the entire saga. What is even more unfortunate is much of the info in Star Wars is in the EU and therefore not relevant.

What we do know however is that only nuclear fusion as a power source has any backing in canon. As for power outputs the Death Star is estimated to have an upper limit on power generation of 3.85E26 and ISDs have an estimated output between 581 and 13,935 Tera watts.

Home