Solar panels need a hefty buff / rebalance

HungarianPatriot shared this feedback 21 hours ago
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Under the most ideal conditions, large grid ones generate 0.16 mW. In comparison: a wind turbine generates 0.4 mW. But while a wind turbine only needs a tower, the solar panel needs a custom turret to function properly. And even then, it only functions during daytime, in clear weather, and if not shadowed by terrain or objects. Whereas, the wind turbine functions all day, and it functions best in storms. It's only criteria is to have no obstruction within 7 blocks to it. I think all things considered, the compactness of the turbines, their more reliable and constant operation, the ease of packing multiple of them close together compared to solar panels, and of course their inherently vastly superior power output adds up to about being ten times more efficient than solar panels.

In practical terms: a refinery needs 560 kW of power. That's not an entire two wind turbines, with plenty of allowance for low winds. It is also exactly 3.5 large grid solar panels, but considering that they work only during daytime, we can make that 7 if we happen to be on a planet, and that still does not account for losses due to poor weather conditions. Add to this the rather hefty PCU cost. They can't be stacked in large numbers without tanking performance and and consuming the PCU limit if such is set.

Now, of course, the elephant in the room is that the wind turbine needs an atmosphere and a stationary grid, while the solar panel needs neither. However, without atmosphere, the solar panel is the only renewable energy source that does not require constant resource gathering to keep it supplied. This becomes a pressing issue if one wishes to play on a celestial body with no atmosphere, or in space itself, as industrial facilities built there inevitably degrade into either a horrible solar panel spam or a game of feeding the reactor / hydrogen engine rather than doing something actually fun.

For these reasons, I suggest a rebalance of the solar panels. For one, bringing the large grid ones' maximum output close to that of a wind turbine. They would STILL be considerably worse due to their dependency on being perpendicularly aligned to and hit by sunlight, and working only for half of the day on planets. Which brings me to the second half of this proposal. To make sure that moving ships do not benefit too much from this buff, and other forms of power generation do not become redundant, the solar panel's aforementioned dependency could be amplified. The end result, hopefully, would be solar panels becoming much more viable for stationary bases, while remaining about as useful as they are now for ships - sources of backup and emergency power, but little else.

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