How to build solar panels to get max power out of available horizontal space

[Angpaur]

Here is a comparsion of a fully exposed solar panel and 7 panels stacked verically and overlapping 6 tiles, so only one tile is exposed:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492386414
As you can see a fully exposed panel is 22,66% less efficient.

EDIT: The number of exposed tiles seems to be linear in power generated per tile so the most efficient overlap is to have 3 tiles overlap, so 4 tiles of solar panel are exposed to light.

If you want to expose 5 tiles then this is less efficient because 380W / 5 = 76W during peak time.
When there is less than 5 tiles exposed then each tile generates 85W during peak time

[Shame]

That's an unfortunate mechanic. Pretty common knowledge by now that you can expose only like 3 or 4 tiles of a panel to get maximum wattage still as each tile exposed doesn't have even an equal ratio to power it can produce. Better yet is to build a power tower out of solar modules from the new rocket system in the DLC.

[Angpaur]

Well seems I was wrong - when I last time checked the panel layouts I remember it wasn't linear, so 2 tiles exposed were not sum of 85 + 85. But now seems it is the case so the most efficient layout is when 4 tiles are exposed. I will update original post.

[Atrophus]

Yes max efficiency is above what the solar panel can produce, so partially exposed solar panels stacked on top of each other are best.

[Angpaur]

Originally posted by Atrophus:

Yes max efficiency is above what the solar panel can produce, so partially exposed solar panels stacked on top of each other are best.

Yup, that has been known from a some time. I was interested which setup is the best. For a long time I have been convienced that 6 tiles overlap is the best solution. Many people think that 2 tiles overlap is the best. True is that 3 tiles overlap is optimal both for space taken by panels and power generated.