Protect Solar Panels or useless?

[Pelagorn]

Hello. I lose many ressources to build new solar panels on the top. can i protect it for longer durability or its useless. how do you use solar panels and how long do you use the sun. when do you change to another energy?

[devblazer]

Use the new heavy solar panels (very expensive) I believe they don't get damaged on storms? Might be wrong about that, but considering what they cost to build...

Otherwise, just encase all your solar panels in a full glass green house with its own door. Open the door from time to time to normalise the temperature and your solar panels will run at like 70% of their normal efficiency, but hey, take what you can get. Also use composite wall windows if you go this route, I believe they are much more resilient to storms.

[Graf Schokola]

Originally posted by devblazer:

Open the door from time to time to normalise the temperature and your solar panels will run at like 70% of their normal efficiency,

Or evacuate the room. no gas = no temperature

[Wazza]

Or rebuid your standart solars after every storm ;)

[letaquiner]

Use duct tape to repair them, until you can build the 'heavy' storm resistant versions.

[pryt]

I've encased my solar panels on Venus:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423553221

Including the logic for them in there.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423553254

But mainly it is wind power where the energy is coming from, daylight solar is just a bonus:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423553310

Basically, you want to enclose your solar panels on Venus (and to an extent on Mars too). I got 50 of them in that long row and it would be a pain to have to repair them after every storm. The minor loss of efficiency due to shadows on them from the window panes -> not that bad.

[6ril]

I've tried the encasing in glass, but my solar panels keep getting damaged by storms on Mars. Any recommendation ? Seems to me that playing on mars is broken if we don't have a way to protect the panel coupled with weather station storm detection

[letaquiner]

If you're taking the route of encasing them - they must be fully encased (no openings.) A lot of people have successfully achieved this. Personally, I don't bother. I live with the annoyance of duct-tape repairs or dismantle/rebuild them until I can make the heavy variants. Since the first storm is 7-days in; and then they're variable between 3-12 days - typically you don't have to weather too many storms before you can make heavies.
Also, on higher-pressure planets, I often mostly forego solar in favour of wind. (Not a viable solution on Mars though.)

[Cores]

Originally posted by 6ril:

I've tried the encasing in glass, but my solar panels keep getting damaged by storms on Mars. Any recommendation ? Seems to me that playing on mars is broken if we don't have a way to protect the panel coupled with weather station storm detection

Make sure what your tablet shows ROOM not World at your solar "greenhouse". Also bear in mind what partially-welded frames (located at signifient altitude) considered as tranparent and your tablet return a 'world' state at that case.
So you have to weld your frames twice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244380
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244422
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244469

I think it help.
n.b. And for now glass windows are not needed - if tablet shows room then all be fine at storm =)
[looks like a bug btw]

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMDDHeu7K-4

[Bryn]

I've had some success with just partially covering my solar panels. Not sure if the damage is from the wind directly so me putting a box with no roofs around the solar panels protected them from damage or maybe it was just a bug? Anyoene else had solar panels not take damage from storms in partial shelter?

[SuprSpredder]

Originally posted by Cores:

Originally posted by 6ril:

I've tried the encasing in glass, but my solar panels keep getting damaged by storms on Mars. Any recommendation ? Seems to me that playing on mars is broken if we don't have a way to protect the panel coupled with weather station storm detection

Make sure what your tablet shows ROOM not World at your solar "greenhouse". Also bear in mind what partially-welded frames (located at signifient altitude) considered as tranparent and your tablet return a 'world' state at that case.
So you have to weld your frames twice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244380
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244422
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2429244469

I think it help.
n.b. And for now glass windows are not needed - if tablet shows room then all be fine at storm =)
[looks like a bug btw]

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMDDHeu7K-4

What Cores said. I was going crazy trying to understand why my room of panels were dying until I tried his suggestion and it turns out there was one frame that wasn't fully sealed but i didn't know it because there was a thin layer of dirt covering the top.

[Ghevd]

Playing the beta I started over and other than using 3 of the basic solar panels for my starter shack I intend to go directly to gas power generator. Just gonna need a solid fuel generator to give her a kickstart.

[Delle(DK)]

pro tip.
I like solar panels they are kind of cool to make them follow the sun and stuff like that.
However on planets with strong storms i try to avoid using them.
I start out with example 2-3 solar panels to get power to survive.
Sometimes i build a glass building around them ( glass windows ) and that work perfect but look stupid.

But els the very best metod on planets with storms is to build vertical windmills and some large base batterys.
Its a pretty cheap setup in the early game to build 2 vertical windmills and 1-2 base batterys then you have enough power for +10 days and every 5-10 days a storm will recharge you batterys everytime.
But best of all you dont have to waste your time repairing the windmills after every storm.

( on europa the above method is awesome )
ps. The small vertical windmill ONLY operate when there is a storm.