My fortress is built in a warm and slightly wooded area with lots of hills with almost no surface water except for a few stagnant pools.
I found water about two levels above the magma sea, and I want to move this water up to the surface (or at least closer to my main fort). I have everything almost dug out and ready to go; The only problem is the sheer scale. The water is almost 200 levels below ground.
The problem is power. I don't have any surface water to speak of, so water wheels won't work, and I don't think that I have enough space on the surface for the sheer amount of windmills I would need. If I remember right, windmills supply 40 power and pumps take 50 power.
So my question is: how can I power this monstrosity?
P.S. I even thought about manually pumping it up because I would only need it to run in short bursts, but I only have 75 dwarfs right now (counting children) with a cap of 100, so that won't work.
Best Answer
A screw pump only needs 10 power, putting a pump stack of 200 stories high at 2000 power. You could use a dwarven water reactor for this. A water wheel outputs 100 power, but consumes 10 power itself, giving a net gain of 90 power. So with a good design, you COULD do it with only 23 waterwheels at the bottom.
I really like Nick's idea of making an automated minecart track. I think this would probably be a lot less time-consuming.