Comment by westmeal
Diesel is not the same as a gas generator. There are a lot of things to go wrong with gas engines tbh. Diesel on the other hand will mostly run without too much fuss so long as there is compression and there is fuel.
Diesel is not the same as a gas generator. There are a lot of things to go wrong with gas engines tbh. Diesel on the other hand will mostly run without too much fuss so long as there is compression and there is fuel.
Diesel lasts longer, but you should also be polishing the diesel fuel to keep it in good condition, which is another point of failure. When fossil gas is available, it is usually elected as the fuel of choice because this is unnecessary (as the generator is hooked up to gas pipelines, and no storage consideration is required). Propane will last forever in a proper container, but poses more storage risk than diesel.
TLDR Diesel generators where you might be without mains for a while and intend to replenish the fuel with deliveries during the outage, fossil gas for use cases where gas delivery pipelines are available (urban, suburban), propane for offgrid use cases (rural, cell towers, etc) where fuel longevity is a concern.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_polishing