Probably more appropriate for a separate mod, but have you considered RITEGs as part of thermodynamic power?

With the drop in efficiency of solar, a RITEG of some kind would feel appropriate for space (I haven't though about any balance issues).

Or your thoughts on the balance of
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RITEG

Used to have one but there's no real need anymore since nuclear works now and fusion is better. Still might do one day.

Agreed, but I want to skip the steam turbines vent steam to space, and your solar panel nerf compels more interesting space construction.

OK we are of a similar mind on this. It's definitely something I'm going to explore. I'm a dad with a big boy job so I don't know when but I think this is a good idea. You probably don't know this but I did an entire nuclear engineering overhaul mod in an earlier version of factorio; I studied physics in college and I really hate the nuclear recipes. My mod was ... OK. But nuclear isn't as relevant now with fusion power, and I think yeah this would be one simple thing to improve nuclear.

I moved this mod to https://mods.factorio.com/mod/physics.

OK we are of a similar mind on this. It's definitely something I'm going to explore. I'm a dad with a big boy job so I don't know when but I think this is a good idea. You probably don't know this but I did an entire nuclear engineering overhaul mod in an earlier version of factorio; I studied physics in college and I really hate the nuclear recipes. My mod was ... OK. But nuclear isn't as relevant now with fusion power, and I think yeah this would be one simple thing to improve nuclear.

Yeah this is not exactly high priority. I also am in the boat of not liking the balance of nuclear. It was your changes to solar/battery that got me interested in addressing the overall power balance, and create some interesting options.

The reality is from a game design POV an RTG is not actually exciting - set and forget, no real logistics challenge - but maybe it plays a role as a backup or baseline.