Solar Panels not providing any power

[Nova]

Hi,

last time i played this game, was with Alpha 13 or so.
Back then you had to connect the solar panels to nodes, and the nodes itself had connections between them.

This seams to be gone. Yet my 4 solar panels don't provide any power, even though it says 4/s.

When i hover over the power icons on the top left panel, it only shows my Energium Power Generator.

So what do i miss here so that those solar power are actually used?

PS: My Backup Power Nodes, don't seam to give any power to anything. I think i miss some basic gameplay feature here, that i cannot see here... And ye, everything is in range of a node.

[Bobucles]

If the ship is full on energy, the solar panels will stop generating.
The power overlay shows the average over the past few seconds. So it doesn't fully show how the panels are responding tick by tick to power demand.

[Solanix]

Originally posted by Nova:

PS: My Backup Power Nodes, don't seam to give any power to anything. I think i miss some basic gameplay feature here, that i cannot see here... And ye, everything is in range of a node.

Backup power nodes only function when all your energy capacitors from your power nodes and generator run dry. I also don't think backup power will work on anything that requires a high capacity power connection. It's only meant to keep life support and hydroponics functioning until you resolve the power situation.

If you want an actual battery you need to use power capacity nodes.

[Valliac]

As stated, the solar panels only provide small power, not high-capacity. You'll need the small/large power nodes to power everything.

I usually put a few power batteries near my solar panels, let them charge up in case there's any issues with power.

[Stardustfire]

in 13 the solar panels where useful as mainsource, after the first big nerv/"destroy energy planning patch" the got total obsolete. the community nearly stoned the devs for that and they rowed a little back. so now the panels can feed all that dont needs "high power" (all heavy industrie/defense facilitys) and lessens the burden of power rod consumtion on the generators. now you want your batteries as near as possible on the power distribution knotes that need to keep running with temporal high power demmands (industrie rooms for example)

[Bobucles]

The concept of "big and small power" is gone. Everything uses the same power supply.
High demand machines (5+) need power nodes to get supplied, and low demand (5-) machines can connect anywhere.

Solar panels have very low output and quite simply won't make enough power for high voltage machines. You can TRY, it sucks, but it can be done. They are excellent for handling low demand machines, which covers life support and idle drain and such. It saves energy cells but you still need a main generator for anything important.

[Stardustfire]

Bob, the solar Panels output is so low that the genertor is still needed, the Solar Panels coud never deliver enove power to keep the ship running alone now, as soon you have some weapons and heavy industrie installed and running. the ship sice to house enove Panels shoud be bigger than the biggest unmodded ship when you try that.

[Myckoz]

hi guys.
is there any UI showing up how much solar panel are contributing whatsoever?
for now, it just looks like it isn't doing anything?

[Stardustfire]

icon in the bottom right, and than choose the thunderbolt icon.

it just looks like it isn't doing anything?

have 96 in my ship, and they provide enove power that the generator must not work as long not more than 1 or 2 industry are used and im not in a dark system.
when shields needs recharge, or the engines start up on top, the generator needs to kick in indeed (just happend that i came out of a nebulon system, the x3 tanked to 100% to fuel up the 8 shield gens for shield rebuild) .