Singularity Core

Originally intended to harvest the rotational energy of the many black holes scattered across the universe, the development of artificial black holes and temporally accelerated reactors cemented the singularity core, a descendant of the Penrose sphere, as a favored method of high-yield starship/megastructure power generation.

Utility

Singularity cores combine an extremely efficient Penrose sphere (built around a small, highly-charged rotating black hole) with precisely controlled time contraction to vastly accelerate the rate at which angular momentum and Hawking radiation is converted into usable energy. This shortens the lifespan of the artificial singularity from millions of years to mere millennia at full output, at which point new singularity cores can be accreted. More importantly, the output of a singularity core vastly dwarfs that of a similarly-sized antimatter reactor, allowing a ship to mount more powerful sensors, thrusters, weapons, and denser shields and neutronium.
However, the time and cost of making a singularity core is usually considered excessive for smaller-scale applications like hovercars or backpack-sized reactors.

Access & Availability

Singularity cores are impossible to create without a solid grasp on black hole mechanics, artificial star creation, and a decently-powerful fusion or antimatter reactor to jumpstart the process. Even for a superpower along the lines of the Federation, the time required to activate a singularity core is a bottleneck for ship production.