The real key in my experience is to build the sphere around an o type star big enough to encompass the innermost planet and the your photon generation is always active for the receivers on that planet. One planet around an average otype star can do 400ish gigawatts of photon output. From there you'll never have a power problem unless it's rod subcomponent related (not photons though obviously). This methodology got me to 150 antimatter rods a minute before my framerates started to crumble