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{{:Solar panel/infobox}}
{{:Infobox:Solar panel}}


Solar panels are an infinite source of free energy while producing no pollution. During daylight hours every panel provides the maximum power level, 60kW. Generated power will increase/decrease linearly during dusk and dawn, and no power is produced at night. When placed, the Solar Panel takes up 9 spaces, in a 3x3 area.
'''Solar panels''' are an unlimited source of free energy that produce no pollution. During daylight hours every panel provides the maximum power level, 60kW. Generated power will increase/decrease linearly during dusk and dawn, and no power is produced at night. This means one solar panel produces an average of 42 kW over one day and night cycle.
 
[[File:Solar-Panel-0.9.8.png|thumb|350px|8 Solar Panels]]
 
[[File:SolarPanelSetUp.png|350px|thumb|An efficient solar panel set up.]]


== Energy management ==
== Energy management ==


As already stated, solar panels produce energy only during the day, but you are likely to want your factory running at night as well.
As already stated, solar panels produce energy only during the day, but you are likely to want your factory running at night as well. [[Accumulator]]s can be charged up with solar panels during the day to power the base at night.
 
[[Accumulator]]s can be charged up during the day to power the base at night. [https://youtu.be/FXzKoKGtaVU] shows a way you can lay out Accumulators and Solar Panels with space efficiency.


[[Accumulator]]s are not the only way to work with solar energy. Sometimes it is more economical to just avoid consuming energy at night. For example, if you power a bunch of [[Electric mining drill]]s and [[Electric furnace]]s to produce [[Iron plate|iron]] and [[copper plate]]s, you could build more drills and furnaces than you actually need, and store the excess production during the day. At night you can shut down extractors and furnaces, and let your factory run with the stored plates. Instead of storing energy, you are storing what the energy is used for. The easiest way to achieve this is by connecting all your extractors and furnaces to a separate electric network with exactly enough solar panels to make them work during the day. The rest of your factory would be connected to a separate electric network, with other solar panels, and possibly accumulators and/or steam engines. Another way is to put your whole factory on the same electric network, but use a [[circuit network]] to monitor the charge level of your [[Basic accumulator|accumulators]] and shut down a sub-network with a [[power switch]] as soon as the accumulators charge goes below 90%. The same technique can be applied to your steam engines to enable them only when your accumulators are almost discharged. In both cases, an hysteresis can be used to avoid toggling on/off a whole part of the electric network at every tick (for example: when accumulator charge goes below 80% you shut down furnaces, but you enable them again only when accumulator charge is above 95%).
Accumulators are not the only way to work with solar energy. Sometimes it is more economical to just avoid consuming energy at night. For example, if you power a bunch of [[electric mining drill]]s and [[electric furnace]]s to produce [[Iron plate|iron]] and [[copper plate]]s, you could build more drills and furnaces than you actually need, and store the excess metal production during the day. At night you can shut down the drills and furnaces, and let your factory run with the stored plates. Instead of storing energy, you would be storing what the energy is used for. The easiest way to achieve this is by connecting all your extractors and furnaces to an electric network with exactly enough solar panels to make them work during the day, and keeping this network away from your factory's main electric network.


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
 
* A single solar panel outputs an average of 42 kW over a day and requires 0.84 accumulators to sustain a constant power output through the night (exact numbers, not rounded).
* It takes 23.8 solar panels to operate 1MW of factory '''and''' charge enough accumulators to sustain that 1MW through the night
* It takes 23.8 solar panels to operate 1 MW of factory '''and''' charge 20 accumulators to sustain that 1 MW through the night.
 
* The optimal ratio for solar power to charge enough accumulators is 21 accumulators for 25 solar panels (supplying 42 kW per solar panel).
== Trivia ==
 
* Ecology in factorio has many similitudes with the challenges of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_transition energy transition] in real life, where energy production is only one part of the problem, because renewable energy sources are usually intermittent. Consumption planning, and energy storage, are actually bigger challenges than just producing enough annual renewable energy.


== Achievements ==
== Achievements ==
{{Main|Achievements}}
{{Achievement|solaris}}
Solar panels are directly connected to the following achievements:
{{Achievement|steam-all-the-way}}
; Solaris
: Produce more than 10 GJ energy per hour without the usage of [[steam engine]].
; Steam all the way
: Win the game without using a solar panel.


== History ==
== History ==
Line 61: Line 48:


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Electric network]]
* [[Electric system]]
* [[Basic accumulator]]
* [[Accumulator]]
* [https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?title=Power_production#Optimal_ratio Calculating the optimal ratio of accumulators to solar panels]
* [[Power_production#Optimal_ratio|Calculating the optimal ratio of accumulators to solar panels]]
* A [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9314 Solar Power Excel sheet]
* A [https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9314 Solar Power Excel sheet]
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8949 (Forum topic) The way I solar]
* [https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8949 (Forum topic) The way I solar]
* [[Game-day]]
* [[Game-day]]


{{ProductionNav}}
{{ProductionNav}}
 
{{C|Energy}}
[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Electric network]]

Revision as of 11:45, 13 February 2024

Solar panel.png
 Solar panel

Solar panel entity.png

Recipe

Time.png
10
+
Copper plate.png
5
+
Electronic circuit.png
15
+
Steel plate.png
5
→
Solar panel.png
1

Total raw

Time.png
28.75
+
Copper plate.png
27.5
+
Iron plate.png
15
+
Steel plate.png
5

Map color

Health

Quality normal.png 200
Quality uncommon.png 260 Quality rare.png 320
Quality epic.png 380 Quality legendary.png 500

Stack size

50

Dimensions

3×3

Power output

60 kW (full daylight)
42 kW (average)
17.5 MJ per day

Quality normal.png 100%
Quality uncommon.png 130% Quality rare.png 160%
Quality epic.png 190% Quality legendary.png 250%

Mining time

0.1

Prototype type

solar-panel

Internal name

solar-panel

Required technologies

Solar energy (research).png

Produced by

Assembling machine 1.png
Assembling machine 2.png
Assembling machine 3.png
Electromagnetic plant.png
Player.png

Consumed by

Satellite.png
Portable solar panel.png

Solar panels are an unlimited source of free energy that produce no pollution. During daylight hours every panel provides the maximum power level, 60kW. Generated power will increase/decrease linearly during dusk and dawn, and no power is produced at night. This means one solar panel produces an average of 42 kW over one day and night cycle.

Energy management

As already stated, solar panels produce energy only during the day, but you are likely to want your factory running at night as well. Accumulators can be charged up with solar panels during the day to power the base at night.

Accumulators are not the only way to work with solar energy. Sometimes it is more economical to just avoid consuming energy at night. For example, if you power a bunch of electric mining drills and electric furnaces to produce iron and copper plates, you could build more drills and furnaces than you actually need, and store the excess metal production during the day. At night you can shut down the drills and furnaces, and let your factory run with the stored plates. Instead of storing energy, you would be storing what the energy is used for. The easiest way to achieve this is by connecting all your extractors and furnaces to an electric network with exactly enough solar panels to make them work during the day, and keeping this network away from your factory's main electric network.

Notes

  • A single solar panel outputs an average of 42 kW over a day and requires 0.84 accumulators to sustain a constant power output through the night (exact numbers, not rounded).
  • It takes 23.8 solar panels to operate 1 MW of factory and charge 20 accumulators to sustain that 1 MW through the night.
  • The optimal ratio for solar power to charge enough accumulators is 21 accumulators for 25 solar panels (supplying 42 kW per solar panel).

Achievements

Solaris-achievement.png Solaris

Produce more than 10 GJ per hour using only solar panels.

Steam-all-the-way-achievement.png Steam all the way

Launch a rocket to space without building any solar panels.

History

  • 0.13.2:
    • Changed tech requirement from Adv. Electronics to Electronics.
  • 0.12.11:
    • Energy of the solar panel is now fractioned between all the networks it's connected to.
  • 0.12.0:
    • Massive optimisations to solar panel logic.
  • 0.11.0:
    • Significantly slowed crafting speed to 10 secs from 0.5 sec.
  • 0.7.1:
    • Made solar panels pre-science pack 3.
  • 0.5.0:
    • Unplugged icon shown when not connected to any power transfer device.
  • 0.3.0:
    • New solar panel graphics.
  • 0.2.1:
    • Priority of power consumption changed to consume from solar panel first.

See also

Production items

Tools

Furnaces

Agriculture

Environmental protection

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