Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Add a 'solar' type to the EnergySource prototype, allowing for entitties that generate free power with the same intensity curve/duty cycle pattern as vanilla solar panels.

What ?

Currently there is no way to define custom solar-powered entities without resorting to silly Lua-based workarounds. The proposed EnergySource type would basically be a 'void' energy source with that same day-night intensity curve (70% duty-cycle) as vanilla solar panels.

Why ?

There are currently several mods implementing various kinds of solar-powered entities which do not fall under the SolarPanel prototype, which all have to work around this shortcoming of the EnergySource interface.

I would really love to see this too !

Thanks!
-Kizrak

Having studdied the EnergySource prototype, I also +10 this request. Factorio API does not allow for a solar energy boiler. This is, ... well incomprehsnible to me, as all the mechanics for it are available in the game.

I know the Lua prototypes most likely are wrappers for the internal c++ classes or structs or functions libraries or whatever you use to keep track of a gazillion entities. And these are well optimizedfor sure. Providing a separate solar energy source module like the other energy sources might be an opportunity to further enable modders though.