Solar generator
Solar generator
Produces electricity from sunlight. Does not work in the dark or under artificial light.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 4 × 4
- Minifiable
- False
- Placeable
- True
- Passability
- pass through only
- Cover Effectiveness
- 50%
- Terrain Affordance
- Medium
- Power
- 1700 W
Creation
- Required Research
- Solar panel
- Skill Required
- Construction 6
- Work To Make
- 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs)
- Resources to make
100 + 
3- Deconstruct yield
- 50 + 1 - 2
- Destroy yield
- 25 + 0 - 1
A solar generator provides up to 1700W of power from sunlight. It has much smaller space requirements than a wind turbine but provides no power at night or during an eclipse. It can be placed in a wind turbine's exclusion zone with no effect on the turbine. Solar generators may be protected by surrounding them with walls, but they must stay unroofed to operate.
Acquisition
Solar generators can be constructed once the Solar panel research project has been completed. They require 100 Steel, 3 Components, 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, and a Construction skill of 6.
Summary
 | This section is a stub. You can help RimWorld Wiki by expanding it. Reason: Need analysis of how latitude affects power generation and graph of daily light cycle. |
Power output is a direct product of the daytime light level. For example, at 50% daylight, a solar generator produces 850W of its 1700W maximum. An eclipse blocks the sun, but weather conditions like rain, fog, or snow will not reduce any power. A roof reduces power output. However, there's no "overshadow" from mountains, despite any graphics of long shadows seen in the game.
Solar generators only operate by the world light level; light from ordinary sources such as a standing lamp or sun lamp will not cause them to generate power. The latitude of your starting position will affect solar cycles, with equator zones giving the strong consistent output and the north pole struggling to reach peak output.
Lightning striking causes it to generate a small amount of power.
Analysis
Solar generators are "free" energy; once built, they do not need fueling, they simply give and keep giving... while they have sunshine. They do not give their maximum power from start to finish; as daylight grows, the power they provide slowly grows to their full capacity, and then tapers off again back to zero as dusk and night approach.
In a single day, there are roughly:
- 9 hours of full sunlight - from 0800 to 1700
- 8 hours of no sunlight - from 2000 to 0400.
- 7 hours of reduced sunlight - from 0400 to 0800, and 1700 to 2000.
Batteries are the easiest way to make power consistent, allowing power use at night, so long as an eclipse doesn't happen.
Alternatively, you can accept that not all items need to be powered 24/7. Most production benches are only used when colonists are awake, and some buildings like smelters and crematoriums don't even need to be used daily. The most pertinent case is with sun lamps, which shuts down as night begins. Two solar generators will roughly power a sun lamp; but as they aren't always at full output, batteries remain helpful.
Version history
Original sprite
- Power
- Power conduit (Hidden, Waterproof) • Power switch • Wood-fired generator • Chemfuel powered generator • Wind turbine
- (research)
- Battery • Geothermal generator • Solar generator • Watermill generator • Toxifier generator
• Bioferrite generator
- (uncraftable)
- Vanometric power cell • Unstable power cell
- Related
- Ship reactor • Electroharvester