The Medium Solar Panel is a power-generating item that converts sunlight into electrical power. Like other solar devices, it only produces power while exposed to the sun, and its output depends on the brightness of the current planet’s daylight cycle. It is a practical mid-size option for early and mid-game power setups, especially when placed on rovers, platforms, or bases that spend long periods in sunlight.
A Medium Solar Panel fills one column of a medium battery in 4 seconds when operating at its standard output. At that baseline, it produces 4 U/s, which is four times the output of a Small Solar Panel. Its performance scales with local sunlight conditions, so the same panel can be much stronger on brighter worlds and weaker on dimmer ones.
Average output by sunlight level:
Medium sun: 4.0 U/s
High sun: 6.0 U/s
Very high sun: 7.0 U/s
Low sun: 2.0 U/s
Very low sun: 1.0 U/s
Because solar generation is tied to daylight, the panel is most effective when paired with storage or other power sources for use during night or in poor lighting conditions.
The panel is a better compact generator than smaller solar parts when a base needs more power without taking up as much space as larger infrastructure.
The pre-release version of the Medium Solar Panel was visually similar to the Pathfinder device from The Martian. It originally had three panels, which were later reduced to two when the model was revised in pre-alpha. Its folded shape and compact frame remained part of its design, and its closed state is shown in the game’s media assets.
The panel’s structure also has a noticeable visual quirk: the small bars on the panels do not line up perfectly with the supports. This is generally treated as a scaling issue in the model rather than a gameplay problem.
