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I'm trying to figure out the balance on this. Please vote!

I like both but I wish it were easier to overlap them in a regular grid. You can fit three solar panels under a wind panel but not regularly and there's lots of wasted or odd grid squares.

I use both in conjunction: Solar power for daytime, while wind adds to that, and generates sometimes considerable power at night.

Edit: Went back to Alpha 15 to go to my old A15 colony to offer a perspective on end-game power plant numbers
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k101/XeoNovaDan/powergen_zpsslmjowuw.png)

53 Solar Generators, 16 Wind Turbines and 9 Geothermal Plants for a colony of that scale to be pretty much constantly online

My thoughts:

Solar: Cheaper in terms of space, and works pretty much 8-12 hours a day without much interruption - unless night falls, it starts to rain/thunder (lightning strikes CAN activate solar panels briefly, which is cool), or an eclipse occurs. Overall useful, if not a bit OP compared to wind turbines

Wind: In my personal opinion, it's not that good compared with solar panels, but has one notable advantage: wind turbines can work at night and even if an eclipse occurs, if it's raining/thunder-ing, but that said, the amount of power generated fluctuates from time to time (which is understandable, as wind speed isn't constant realistically).

One thing I want to suggest is this: like how wind turbines don't always run at 100% power output all the time, solar panels should be this way too. Like if a cloud passes by, covering sunlight, shouldn't this decrease power output? I know that you're don't always go for realism, but it's a suggestion.

Final Thoughts: By themselves, solar is better, but are good as they are if used together, though solar power might need some improvements.

Wind, by far. Solar has two many downsides.

Solar is:
More Expensive
Affected by eclipses
Affected by volcanic winter
Less productive in the high and low latitudes

I don't ever use solar.

Over a long enough period of time barring any events, solar and wind seem to produce roughly the same amount but once you factor in events wind comes out way, way ahead.

I voted for "They're well-balanced, I use both about equally" but what I meant is only the second part, "I use both about equally". I never took the time to formally look at their efficiencies so I use both so that if either one is much better or if they are about the same then I am still covered.

Wind does seem more reliable given some of the events, but I use solar panels more or less just to prevent trees from growing on one side of the wind generator. It bothers the heck out of me that solar panels are not the same shape as the smaller side of the wind generator reserve space though. Ultimately both are a stop-gap until geothermal. A well designed base can easily power 20 pawns worth of equipment with one geothermal, 5 each wind and solar, and 6-10 batteries (depending on the map...i don't play much on the extreme hot/cold biomes). That's my typical configuration.

I noticed that wood furnaces were not even mentioned in the poll.

Quote from: Hieronymous Alloy on January 11, 2017, 04:55:48 PM
I like both but I wish it were easier to overlap them in a regular grid. You can fit three solar panels under a wind panel but not regularly and there's lots of wasted or odd grid squares.

This. 100% agree. I would like a resize to make them grid up better and be more space efficient.

I use both about equally, but I feel like solar produces a lot more electricity than wind over a period of time, unless you run into an eclipse of course. I think wind could use a slight boost imho, as there will be days I dont seethe wind activate at all

I sometimes use solar but 98% of the time wind all the way. Turbines may not produce the best power at times but they work 24/7 eclipse or not.

If I remember correctly, putting four wind turbines in a row allows for a box of 5x2 solar panels in front of them. Repeating this, you can build a huge box with the solar panels contained inside. The space in the corners of this wind farm can also be used to set up another 2x2 group of solar panels. It's a massive 30x30 green energy farm when fully built. Produces untold energy for most vanilla bases, I would imagine, but I still needed it to be bigger for my modded colonies.

As for which is better, I find wind to be highly unstable, but with solar I can reliably build enough batteries/solars to manage each night. Wind does function during eclipses and I think during flares.

It occurred to me that tracking the effectiveness of each type of generator over time during games would be a trivial thing to log. Fluffy's Colony Manager mod may even track this, I know it has a power tab, although I have not explored it. I think a proper analysis of data would be a better approach than how people feel about them or how often they get used.

It would be easily justifiable given that RimWorld is still in Alpha to add a system for reporting on certain kinds of data during games.

When I'm looking at power systems to implement in my base, reliability trumps everything.  I want to make sure that the things I need to work are going to work when I need them to, and as long as the short circuit event functions as it does I definitely want to minimize my reliance on batteries.  So when I look at solar vs. wind, I ask myself which one is going to more reliably power my base.

On the surface, wind power seems more reliable - Solar power is shut down by nighttime, inclement weather, and eclipses, while wind always works.  But where wind becomes unreliable is in the quantity of power it produces.  When my solar generator is running I know exactly how much power it will produce at peak.  I have no idea what my wind generators are going to put out at any given time.  The lower cost of wind generators is offset by the increased need for batteries to make sure things keep working when the wind dies down.

I'd say wind is the weakest power source right now because of its wildly fluctuating output.  If I absolutely need something to run, I'll use geothermal generators or fueled generators, since those always work.  For general power consumption, solar power works fine.  Wind, though?  Wind is what I use to top off batteries, if I use it at all.

I start with solar and a few batteries once I start hitting the limits of power for my base (starts blacking out at night usually when the batteries dry up) i chuck a few turbines down, I do this repeatedly.

Wind produces more on average, but they're both good.  Solar panels can be placed on the forced empty spots required by wind turbines.  As such, you place solar panels and wind turbines in the same real estate to generate more power.

When I start a game, I always build solar panels first, because they're more reliable and take less space.  As the game goes on, I always make a mix of both.

I always start with one solar, one wind, one battery.

I find wind to be the more powerful and solar to be the more consistent.  Together they make a good team until geothermal is unlocked.

Not exactly well balanced as others have mentioned but I use both + geothermal and generators for redundancy.

I find myself using wind a lot more than solar panels. Why? They provide a decent power output early on and is easy on components while working on night.

Maybe a smaller wind generator could be neat for those tight fits or skimping on your component budget even more early on :P.

What i really would like is more power generation types though. A bigger fuel generator or something that produce power comparable to a geothermal.

For me, if I have a lot of space/am planning things out, I make a 32x20 tile power setup, where there are 4 wind turbines in a row, and 12 tiles away, facing the opposite direction, there are 4 other turbines. Filling in all the zones are a 2x5 grid of solar, or 3x5 for the middle.

Wind provides more power once you get closer to the poles, but is less reliable, although if you stick to solar, you can be more affected by random events (Eclipse and Volcanic Winter can drain your power)

If I am playing clos to the poles, I prefer to use pure wind power (until Geo), because Solar is so inefficient near the poles. Solar is nice near the equator, especially since with wind you either need to spend some time flooring the area around it, or deal with the random trees that grow.

I don't think there's much to 'balance' between them, since solar's use is heavily affected by longitude.

More power options would be great, currently there are the unreliable sources from Wind and Solar until you switch to the reliable Geothermal. The Fueled generator is somewhat forgotten since 1-2 batteries will solve your problems until Geothermal, even though you have Zzzt events, and some biomes cannot afford the wood upkeep.

If anything, you could nerf both, and provide a Chemfuel Generator that is actually worth using, that way you can use your worst colonists fuel as power.

My biggest issue with wind is how finicky it is with placement and maintenance.
Which is admitably part of the trade off with solar.

To me its not that wind is worse per say, so much as solar is just more consistent and easier to deal with.
With solar:
You don't have to worry about trees, or placing floors to prevent tree growth.
The placement grid is a nice uniform square which is easier to plan for and build around.
Even with things like night time, and eclipses, the power output is just way more consistent.

For me wind makes for a nice backup to slow the drain when solar is down, but its inconstancy and requirements for placement and maintaining what little consistency it gets discourage me from using wind for more than that. Its not even a matter of its actual output, the extra work and inconstancy make it less appealing when compared to solar.

Personally I use solar almost exlusively until I can get to Geothermal up. I've never really been too fond of wind.

Granted I also kind of cheat and use a mod that reduces the energy requirements of lamps from 75 to 25, but still it's not terribly difficult to get to the point where I can rely on Geothermal power.

I usually use wind as it saves space in an early colony. It's hard to get a dedicated large area for turbines early on and combining wind with growing area has an enormous advantage over the amount of space solar needs.
I'm only working towards my first 30+ pawn colony, so not so used to designing huge grids for fully electrified high-population settlements :)

Solar is usually reliable, but many incidents tamper with it. Wind is simply unreliable, so it can only supplement Solar (at least on Temperate maps that I usually play).
About 1 Solar + 1 Wind per battery is more than enough to keep uninterrupted flow, except for worst timed Eclipses and "Zzzzt" discharges.
Fueled generators are best option to cover for these (disconnectable battery banks are too micro-intensive and bring even more "Zzzzt").

But in the end both Solar and Wind are limited by batteries. Too many batteries and "Zzzzt" event (which will unavoidably plague my colony at least once a week) becomes potential Pawn instakill. My rule of a thumb is about 8 batteries max. Past that point expanding power base safely is possible only via Geothermals.

I prefer wind, it's too many sun-blocking events to rely on solar too much.

Solar is very reliable and uses relatively little space.

Wind requires batteries. There are no events like eclipse which completely shut it down. It doesn't seem to depend on geographic position (areas close to poles have reduced sunlight). Making space for wind turbines is awkward, but it's a good option in low vegetation biomes like ice sheet, tundra. Wind turbines need a soothing, dynamically changing turbine sound. Use Heroes of Might and Magic windmill sound as reference.

Note solar panels are sturdier, don't block movement and you can shoot over them.

Fueled generators are very good in cold wooded biomes, like boreal forest. You can keep them indoors and the heat produced is a bonus. Otherwise they're just backup.

I'd love to see mechanics like sun panels being less efficient in shadow and also to see snow covering the panels (making them more challenging to use in colder biomes).

When it comes to the balance I use solar and wind ca 50/50. I find a mix very usefull to secure a fluent power supply. I might build some more solar panels then wind turbines in the long run, since they are alot easier to find place for (one reason it wouldn't hurt balance too much making them more vulnerable to snow and shadows. I'd certainly still build them in winter biomes too).

For the main power grid, using both equally has always seemed the optimal way to go for me. 4 solar and 4 wind turbines in an overlapped 24 x 11 area along with 2 batteries is typically plenty stable for the mid-to-late game (8 - 10 colonists) after which a geothermal gets hooked in and I have electricity to spare.

Note, I always separate off the grow lights to their own solar-only grid with an approximately 1 : 1.25 light to solar ratio (rounding up) and a battery. That's entirely for automated timing purposes, not because solar is inherently better overall.

Quote from: carbon on January 12, 2017, 07:34:05 AM

Note, I always separate off the grow lights to their own solar-only grid with an approximately 1 : 1.25 light to solar ratio (rounding up) and a battery. That's entirely for automated timing purposes, not because solar is inherently better.

For that specific purpose solar power is indeed inherently better.

I prefer solar, but always out some turbines for eclipse. I think solars slightly OP, maybe power should be limited by height of the sun above the horizon and maybe clouds (of course with less eclipses). This may make game slightly harder but now solars really lack it.

Personally I just get 1 solar, maybe a battery and rush for geothermal.

I think most people use these 2 power types as a filler until they hit geothermal, or to compliment their geothermal power supply. I usually end up with 1-2 Turbines 3-6 (depends on how many sun-lamps I have) Solar Panels, and 2 geothermal units. I try to have 10 batteries never drop below 80% in case of some emergency, though now that I am typing it out this seems like overkill. lol.

I tend to use fuel generators in the early days simply because wood is plentiful. Once I am established, I tend to rely on geothermal with a few solar panels for flux power and wind turbines for my farm land.

I modify the Anti-Matter reactor to produce 100k of power and be build-able indoors.  Its silly that such a thing produces so little power when its supposed to power a space ship.  If it cant sustain something on the ground, how can it sustain something that flies into space?

That being said, I was almost totally solar until recently when wind was handy for nighttime.  Now I'm starting to mix the two.  Still, I prefer the predictable power.  If solar runs out at night, everyone is sleeping so it doesnt matter if things turn off. (Hydroponics not included) 

I use 2 solar/wind before High-Tech Research Bench, then add another one. Maybe a bit more in a cold biome. I don't bother building geothermal generators since I learned to be efficient with power use - really! Even turret farms only need a switch.

I mostly build open colonies so no sunlamps needed.

I heavily avoid both of them, I rely only on geothermal and battery (using a couple of solar panel and windmill to recharge them, but they usually never discharge and are disconnected)
I was traumatised by the Zzzzt! event after building too much batteries.

And I will continue to avoid them like the plague as long as this event stay in vanilla.

So can't really vote here, they are both unbalanced due to non-constant power flow, even with both overlaping.

Zzzzt! Event is easily circumvented by uninstalling surplus batteries. I only keep something like 2 batteries installed, the rest are fully charged and in warehouse.

I usually use Solar as a primary, and supplement with wind to even out the troughs once I have a solid solar base.

I voted "They're well-balanced, I use both about equally". I always use solar and batteries when I start out. Although there are events that can make them stop working, I usually have enough juice in my batteries to keep stuff running until they come back. Eventually I will add Wind Turbines to my colony though when I need a bit more power, but don't want to rely on having too many batteries. The inconsistency of the Wind Turbines prevent me from using them exclusively.

Quote from: ChJees on January 11, 2017, 10:22:22 PM

What i really would like is more power generation types though. A bigger fuel generator or something that produce power comparable to a geothermal.

Tidal Power
I'd LOVE to see a reason for coastal bases other than "raids can't hit me from 1 side"

Some sort of building that could be built in shallow water that extends into deep water and produced a small to moderate, but consistent (or semi consistent...50-100% of a value, for example) amount of power.

Solars are completely unusable near the poles, so my vote goes to wind.
Though thanks to Zzzzt... destructiveness I don't like both, and usually go with geothermals and ship reactors.

In a nutshell:

Polar regions: Mostly wind/geothermal power, emergency solar power, though wind is sometimes less reliable

Tropical regions: Solar power with wind as an emergency. Eclipses really hurt

If I had to pick one I would pick solar because most of the time it's reliable and generates power at set times, less hurt for my brain :D

I'd think they're rather balanced.

They're well balanced. Possibly too well balanced.
For the majority of the game you pretty much need both equally, so it seems there's no real problematic considerations to be had (it's better to make both because then you can do with very few batteries if any, which is good for preventing ZAPs).
When the game starts I build 2 solar, 2 wind, and that's that. No problem, don't have to think about it anymore until I get to thermal.
With slower research this is more pronounced.


Also, Endgame colonies that people keep building long after the game has ended aren't something to take into account I think.

I prefer wind turbines as you can plant around them , but only if I have little to no trees. 3 or 4 fueled gennies will last me until geothermals. I try to not work with batteries anymore :)

There is no option to vote for neither!

I must be the odd guy out, I use ship reactors & geothermal. I play strictly vanilla, so the ship reactors suck & take a long time to get resources for them (really should produce more for their cost). BUT I completely avoid batteries and thus zzzt events.

Wind is better because it's smoother and less affected by events, however you need to chop trees around it, and they take a lot more space. I'd say wind is better, but solar is "cheaper". I'm not talking about production costs, you need to surround your power generation with walls, and you need a lot more walls for wind turbines. However you can use empty space that wind turbines require for plants and even solar panels.

Quote from: xrumblingcdsx on January 12, 2017, 11:16:27 PM
There is no option to vote for neither!

I must be the odd guy out, I use ship reactors & geothermal. I play strictly vanilla, so the ship reactors suck & take a long time to get resources for them (really should produce more for their cost). BUT I completely avoid batteries and thus zzzt events.

Well aren't you a snowflake! You must share your trick on getting ship parts and geothermal without power for research.

I use both due to the reasons already mentioned many times; it's aesthetically more pleasing, leads to more efficient square use, and helps some with downtime.

But when I want to really optimize power generation, it's mostly winds really. Preferring wind over solar and prioritizing geothermal also lets one mostly ignore batteries. Solars might be taken out by an eclipse, wind not so.

Quote from: OFWG on January 13, 2017, 02:05:21 PM

Quote from: xrumblingcdsx on January 12, 2017, 11:16:27 PM
There is no option to vote for neither!

I must be the odd guy out, I use ship reactors & geothermal. I play strictly vanilla, so the ship reactors suck & take a long time to get resources for them (really should produce more for their cost). BUT I completely avoid batteries and thus zzzt events.

Well aren't you a snowflake! You must share your trick on getting ship parts and geothermal without power for research.

I burn wood, or I use solar and wind until I research geothermal.

I always play the tribal scenario. If I'm on a boreal map I burn wood, if I'm on a tundra or ice sheet I use solar and wind until I get Geo and ship cores. Its so worth it.

Quote from: OFWG on January 13, 2017, 02:05:21 PM
Well aren't you a snowflake! You must share your trick on getting ship parts and geothermal without power for research.

@ OFWG - How about you stop trying to disrupt the thread with insults and allow users to continue providing the feedback that Tynan requested. It's been a good thread so far and that is the way it will be staying. So if you haven't got anything useful to post in this thread, then please don't post anything at all.

I normally use wind power on desert maps or really cold maps and solar panels in temperate or jungle environments.

Honestly I never really had a complaint with how they are balanced.
Maybe wind could pump out a little more at max capacity and less when at half though. Makes them more unreliable and powerful at the same time.

Voted in solar's favor slightly.

Wind turbines save you a ton of components, but it is very difficult to get used to their variable output. In theory, one turbine should be able to keep one battery operating with 1 kW load, but in practice wind just stops blowing and then your batteries are depleted before you even realise what's going on. Other times, the wind is howling and your batteries are topped off awaiting to be discharged into some pour soul. At least with solar you get an event that notifies you to fire up your fossil-fueled backups.

Solar is more expensive and more predictable, easier to plan for and calculate.
Wind is cheaper, but more difficult to operate and manage.

Both require backups. Which brings me to a point I wanted to make. I rarely use either anymore since the introduction of fueled generators.  :)

Hello,

Excuse me if i made some mistake, english is not my mother tongue. I try my best.

I took sample of energy production of wind turbin and solar panel each hours over 5 days.
It was in Autumn, day 3 to day 8. The colony is in a boreal forest map at this coordinate : 51.04°N, 13.59°E
The method is not very accuracy because the wind turbin power production vary several time during one hour.
However i think it still give a good comparison.


So the number are :
- Over five day the wind turbin give me an average of 26785 Watt/day
- Over five day the solar panel give me an average of 17893 Watt /day
- During the best day of the wind turbin i get 41280 Watt
- During the worst day i get 17428 Watt

Interresting fact :
- The power production during a day of the solar panel decreased each day. I think it's because the day become shorter and that it's taken into account in the game. I think i will do a test during the spring to verify that.
- The weather can be sunny or foggy the power production of the solar panel didn't change.

So, in conclusion, wind turbin is way better. It's poduce more power, it's not strike by eclipse event, and it's cost less ressources. The only drawback is it size and the need to floor the ground.


I think some adjustement can be made for the balance like :
- Have an eclipse-like event for wind turbin, for instance  a wind storm who can damage the wind turbin (because the wind is to strong) and shutt it down, or an absence of wind during a day or two like the eclipse
- increase the solar panel power production but take into account the weather. For example if the sky is cloudy the power output vary during the day and if the weather is foggy the power output decrease a lot (but not down to zero)
- decrease the wind turbin power production to an average below the solar panel because the power generation continue during the night.


Details of the calculation :
I took a sample each hour during 5 day. It's give me 120 points for solar panel and wind turbin.
To take the sample i paused each hour and collect the data.
From this 120 points i calculate the integral to have power output generated during a day. For the integral i use the trapezoidal method.

Quote from: Shaeis on January 14, 2017, 06:59:12 AM
I think some adjustement can be made for the balance like :
- Have an eclipse-like event for wind turbin, for instance  a wind storm who can damage the wind turbin (because the wind is to strong) and shutt it down, or an absence of wind during a day or two like the eclipse
- increase the solar panel power production but take into account the weather. For example if the sky is cloudy the power output vary during the day and if the weather is foggy the power output decrease a lot (but not down to zero)
- decrease the wind turbin power production to an average below the solar panel because the power generation continue during the night.

I completely agree.

Wind turbines don't need to be nerfed.  Solar is already more favorable to more players.

Wind turbines already have an eclipse-like event.  "When the wind doesn't blow".  They produce more on average because their power output is less reliable than solar, require more resources to create, and take up much more space.

Solar panels also don't need to be changed.  They produce less than wind on average because they produce power more reliably (all day), and for the opposite of the reasons listed above.  If you get Zzzt!'d there's an 18 hour window (depending on season and location) that your solar panels will continue to generate energy and power your base while you reconnect your new batteries or fuel your generator or whatever.  If you're running on wind alone, there's no telling when your batteries will start charging again.

I use a mix of solar and wind, with fueled generators for backup/emergency.  Solar would probably be significantly better than wind, if it weren't for the sun being eclipsed about half the time.   ;)

You won't get far with few resources using solar energy early(At least with harsh narrators if you want to expand and tech fast), wind is the way to go, but as colony needs more power you either need to use solar energy to give you steady boost during day to avoid 50% loss in energy in case of wind being weak or building another geothermal generator to decrease energy drain when wind generators do not produce power.

One thing I don't see anyone calculating is the components and resources needed for the batteries when you use wind power.  Shaeis describes the advantage in power produced by wind power.  But how much of that power is lost because your batteries are full?  It's easier to balance batteries with solar power.

But of course, you have to have wind for when the monster eclipse occurs.  (How large is this moon that it blocks the sun out for days?  Can you imagine what the tides on Rimworld must be like?)

Quote from: Shurp on January 14, 2017, 02:41:11 PMIt's easier to balance batteries with solar power.

But then you need more solar panels than wind turbines to produce that power, you also need more panels and batteries to store it for the night during which they kind of eat 200% power due to 50% loss from storing. Balanced power minimises store loss because even small amount produced is worth twice at that time.

Quote from: Shaeis on January 14, 2017, 06:59:12 AM
Hello,
<science>
<research>

There's easier way to measure it exactly. Build tons of batteries. Then at once directly connected with solar/wind turbines. After a day see how much power get stored in batteries.

I feel like solar should be a later-game item that is significantly more efficient in materials/watt than wind, yet suffers all the downsides it currently has, with wind being the only real option in the early game, and a decent backup into the late game, at least until an "industrial" power source can be constructed (geothermal, nuclear, glitterpower, whathaveyou).

I also wouldn't mind increasing solar efficiency with research opening up better designs.

I also think, as with the real world, solar and wind should be more efficient in different areas. Solar should easily trump wind in tropical and arid regions, whereas wind should be more competitive in temperate and colder regions, or coastal areas, or in unforested areas (plains tend to = higher winds).

Why do these two power sources have to be equally balanced? To make players use both power sources? You could simply make it that they function better based to where they are located on the planet. Coast or mountain pass, good for wind, desert and dry areas that see less rain and cloud cover better for solar. Just like in real life. If you don't want to simulate that or it wouldn't suit your gameplay balance, someone also did mention an event for high winds to shut down the turbines, which would be fair in my books.

Quote from: Shurp on January 14, 2017, 02:41:11 PM
One thing I don't see anyone calculating is the components and resources needed for the batteries when you use wind power.  Shaeis describes the advantage in power produced by wind power.  But how much of that power is lost because your batteries are full?  It's easier to balance batteries with solar power.

But of course, you have to have wind for when the monster eclipse occurs.  (How large is this moon that it blocks the sun out for days?  Can you imagine what the tides on Rimworld must be like?)

It seems that every Rimworld is actually a large moon orbiting an extremely massive gas giant.  This would explain the days-long eclipse phenomenon.  As for the frequency of extreme solar flares, the Rimworld's extreme gas giant could be orbiting very close to a red dwarf star, perhaps even as a binary system, if the star is small enough and the planet massive enough.  This is the only configuration I can think of off the top of my head to explain both of these phenomenon!  But back to solar vs wind...  ;D

I always use both. They each have their benefits. Solar is more reliable but useless at night, wind less reliable but (usually) keeps my batteries from draining at night. The batteries are just there to insulate against windless nights. The three are meant to be used in conjunction, and while a colony could run on only wind or solar power I don't see why there would be a reason to.

To be fair as soon as you have 2+ batteries, Solar and Wind are interchangeable unless you're living in some extreme area like a pole. Wind is a bit more hassle to maintain (space, regrowing plants, more fragile), solar has a bigger number of events that turn it off. But either works. My bases last through an eclipse even if I only have solars.

Solars kinda work without batteries, because they're predictable and you just have a shorter workday / raid vulnerability at night. But wind turbines without a battery are hopeless. Even if you build 8 turbines, a moment of silence will affect ALL of them.

Quote from: eadras on January 15, 2017, 12:50:30 AM
It seems that every Rimworld is actually a large moon orbiting an extremely massive gas giant.  This would explain the days-long eclipse phenomenon. 

Hmmm, this actually makes a scary amount of sense.  And it explains the "solar flares" -- only it's not the sun that's frying your electronics, it's the Rimworld passing through the radiation belt of the gas giant's massive magnetic field.

Maybe Rimworld needs a "hard radiation" event too.  Everyone has to get under cover for a few days or suffer toxic-fallout like effects.

It's been a long, looong time since I've bothered to use windmills. Last time I tried using them I could never get them to produce enough power to be consistently equal or better than solar panels.

I usually just make a beeline towards the geothermal and use a combination of solar and fueled until I get there.

Personally, I like using wind power. I do have to pave the area it sits on, which makes the colonists cry a little. It doesn't suffer from eclipses and given an area gets thunderstorms, it usually charges the batteries above and beyond what solar power does. I do use solar, I just don't rely on it, because one long eclipse can mess up my hydroponics.

All of that said, if I want truly reliable power, geothermal is the only way to go - I'd rather start out with geothermal power researched than turrets on the rich explorer, it is perhaps too good.

^ Don't pave it!  Put solar panels or gardens (not trees!) in the wind power zone.  Makes it a more productive area.  ;D

I use both solar & wind until I get geothermal (usually the 2nd or 3rd thing I research).  I find that solar+wind is a good combo for getting started, but they're very far outclassed by geo.  Maybe there should be advanced solar/wind options too?

Anyway, the poll results seem to indicate they're very well balanced.  :)

I started playing RimWorld when we already had the fueled generator. Never liked solar/wind much because of it's unreliaZzzt! Base production is provided with fueled generators and solar with batteries on top. To keep the stored power low, I use Time-of-day-Switch (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=29299), which lets me automate dis-/connecting of batteries on schedule.
I simply never bothered about wind, they use a lot of space, which is a handicap in early game, when I don't know exactly where I'll build my stuff.

I only tried using wind power twice (Once on arid desert, once on forest) and never touched it again. The only thing that mattered was its predictability, and it had zero. With solar i KNOW for fact i'm going to get power during the day barring the exception of a few events. I can then build X amount of batteries to cover the night/eclipse.

I can't do this with wind power. Both times I tried it I had no pwr gen/barely any pwr gen for days at some points. Even overcompensating with batteries there were times they simply did not cover my needs.

On top of this, solar takes up less space. My vote is always going to be solar until i get GEO.