Factorio Forums

So the disscussion about solar panels being op and whatnot has been around for sometime and numerous solutions have been made. But since 0.15 we actually have heat pipes and i think it would be a great replacement for the current solar panels if instead of just generating power, they would instead use the heat pipe to power a heat exchanger.

Mod wise this would require that the solar panel gets a single heat pipe connector and does not produce instead energy anymore but heat. Maybe also some adjustments to the heat exchanger to work with temperatures below 500C°.

I'm not familiar with the mod api and what's possible, so if someone could enlighten me, or maybe create this, that would be great.

In real life, solar panels don't generate heat, they turn light into electricity.
To go from solar to heat, a mirror has to be used.
The realism of the game is not perfect and I don't think this mod would help in this regard.

Well i wouldn't mind actually getting new graphics for actual solar collectors instead of photovoltaic arrays, but that would require way more work and i was interested more into the gameplay implications this mod could bring than the actual graphics for now. ^^