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40d:Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine component that provides power via water flow. To build a water wheel, select build menu and choose Machine components. It requires 3 wood and generates 100 power, which can be used for operating a pump or mill. Use axles and gears to access the power produced by a water wheel.
Construction
Water wheels must be built on water or river tiles, and can not be powered if placed over brook tiles. To do so, you must dig through the surface of the brook. Build a channel at least one tile long. The water wheel will sit "in" this channel, but you cannot place it yet -- it has no support. Build an axle or gear assembly next to the tile where the center of the water wheel will be. Now you can build the waterwheel. Power will be generated once a channel tile under the water wheel is filled with water at a depth of four or greater. You can transport the power wherever it is needed via horizontal and vertical axles and gear assemblies.
The water wheel needs to be parallel with the flow in the channel.
Perpetual motion
Due to the low power draw of a screw pump, a self-powering assembly can be made with a water wheel that still leaves plenty of excess power for other uses. This is probably a bug.v0.27.169.33a
A simple design is available at this forum post.