Energy

The availability of Energy is one of the vital requirements for a settlement on Mars. It can not be brought from Earth in large amounts. An autonomous colony needs their own energy sources.

Since most energy sources are not available continuously some energy storage is required to keep plants alive and production processes running.

Consumers

Heating

Due to the environmental conditions with very low temperaturtes a great amount of energy is required to heat the artificial habitat. Sophisticated insulation reduces the consumption.

Heavy industry

In a growing colony there are some activities, such as metallurgy or silicon production, that will consume large amounts of energy.

Food production

Food contains energy for human beings, and hence the production of food consumes a great amount of energy. In a static (not growing) colony this seems to be the biggest consumer of energy. Due to the dim sunlight the greenhouses must be lit with additional energy, especially during dust storms.

Sources

Solar

Solar panels provide electricity out of sunlight. This source of energy is currently utilized by the majority of space probes, including the Mars Exploration Rovers. Maintenance effort is low, but hi-tech processes are required for their production. The availability strongly depends on the weather conditions and the daytime. Dust storms can last for months during which solar panels are useless. Unfortunately, this energy is not available during the time the greenhouses need additional energy for lighting. The solar energy reaching the surface of Mars is less than half of what reaches Earth. Solar Concentrators may be used to increase the efficiency of solar energy devices.

Very much dependent on the speifcic engineering of the wind turbine. You are losing energy to friction, so the mechanics of the device are very important. All of that is not a consideration for fossil fuels becase the earth has done most of the conversion already by using gravity (i.e., pressure), which is basically infinitely available. If you are thinking not in terms of energy cost, but financail cost, then you really need to think about the supply chain. A single high-effeicncy wind turbine might cost $5MM to build, but there is operational cost, land cost, distribution and storage costs. All of that is baked into the end user price of a gallon of processed fossil fuels. I don't know the speifcic numbers, but I do know that none of the wind farms would be profitable without the government subsidies that they are getting ATM.That chart of 1996 California date someone posted showing that wind is the lowest cost seems highly suspect to me at a minimum it is looking at regulatory compliance costs for things like nuclear and fossil feuls, not just the cost of generating and delivering the energy. That is the problem with data "sound bites", they are a little to easy to quote without thinking about them.

Nuclear

Nuclear power has been considered as the preferred energy source for most plans for medium- to long-term human expeditions to Mars. It does not depend on weather condition. The availability of radioactive resources on Mars is unclear. Due to the vast effort of the nuclear enrichment process the nuclear fuel must be brought from Earth.

Thermocouples

Thermocouples provide electricity out of temperature differences. Thermocouples are used is RTGs, but can also generate electricity out of the terperature difference between the Martian surface and deeper layers. The amount of energy produced with this technology is sufficient for powering sensors or small gadgets for information technology.

Geothermal

Depth drilling can possibly be used to heat buildings by geothermal energy. The temperature in deeper layers of the Martian crust is unclear.

External Links

NASA A Crewed Mission to Mars