Concentrated Solar (Fork) for 2.1.22+

Solar heat and laser towers powered by heliostat mirrors, for Factorio 2.1.22 or newer.

Current mod version: 2.1.4.

This is a fork of Cheese's Concentrated Solar with configurable heat output, tower temperature, mirror contribution and collection radius, and laser damage and attack ranges.

What it adds

• Heliostat Mirrors reflect sunlight toward the nearest solar tower within collection range.
• Solar Power Towers turn that sunlight into heat. Use heat pipes, heat exchangers, and steam turbines to generate electricity.
• Solar Laser Towers use concentrated sunlight as a weapon, with configurable damage and minimum and maximum attack ranges. Give them enough mirrors and time to fill their firing buffer.

Why?

I wanted to be able to adjust the max temperature, how much each heliostat mirror contributes, and how far away mirrors can be. The original version kept those numbers fixed in its own files, so I made a configurable fork.

Also, considering how late this gets unlocked during a K2/SE/Rampant run, I wanted more control over the laser tower's damage and range. A turret doing 3 damage felt a little underwhelming :)

The defaults are tuned higher than the original version I forked. Adjust them to suit your factory.

What's changed for Factorio 2.1?

• Added Angel's and Bob's material and power research integration in 2.1.4.
• Added a Glass source startup dropdown in 2.1.3 for installed Moshine, Maraxsis, and Planetaris: Arig mods.
• Added optional Krastorio 2 Spaced Out support in 2.1.2, including current K2 glass and lithium chloride ingredients and a lithium-processing research prerequisite.
• Added optional Nullius recipes and research in 2.1.1, including late-game solar laser towers.
• Updated fluid handling and the power tower GUI for the 2.1 API.
• Native space platform sunlight follows the platform's location and changes during travel.
• Both tower types support the game's Hide tall entities mode.
• Fixed mirror registration, tower reassignment, and cleanup for automated builds and cloned entities.
• Power estimates account for quality, temperature limits, saturation, and frozen daylight.

Startup settings

These are available under Settings → Mod settings → Startup.

With Nullius, the heating power output defaults to 100 MW and remains configurable.

None of these numeric settings has an explicit maximum. Keep the minimum laser range below the maximum.

Glass source

When Moshine, Maraxsis, or Planetaris: Arig is installed, the Glass source startup dropdown appears, offering Automatic and the installed planets.

Heliostat mirrors use 5 glass instead of 5 copper plates. Solar laser towers use 100 glass and 400 steel plates instead of 500 steel plates. The solar power tower recipe is unchanged.

Automatic prefers Krastorio glass, generic glass (including Moshine), Bob's glass, Angel's glass plates, Maraxsis glass panes, then Arig glass panels. If the selected glass is unavailable, selection falls back to Automatic. Without an available glass item, the original copper/steel recipes are used.

Planet glass comes from the planet mods' existing production recipes. Choosing a planet's glass can require reaching that planet and unlocking its glass production before building mirrors or laser towers; selecting planet glass does not add research prerequisites. Moshine uses the shared generic glass item, so glass made elsewhere can also be used. Angel's glass chains add their glassmaking prerequisite when selected automatically. Nullius retains its dedicated recipe materials regardless of this setting.

Sunlight and power

Mirror contribution follows local sunlight. For power towers, higher quality increases each mirror's contribution until the same configured temperature ceiling is reached, so fewer mirrors are needed to reach full input.

The GUI shows estimated available heat input. Heat delivered to your network also depends on demand and stored heat. On cycling surfaces, the average includes dawn, dusk, night, and saturation. On frozen surfaces and native space platforms, it is an estimate at the current intensity, not a prediction of the ship's route.

Modded planet surfaces

Mirrors and towers use the surface's solar intensity and daylight cycle independently of the glass selected for crafting. No planet-specific sunlight patch is needed for Moshine, Maraxsis, or Arig.

These values come from the supplied planet versions and can change with other mods or settings. Stronger sunlight reduces the number of mirrors needed to reach the configured tower limit; it does not raise that limit. Day/night cycles still affect collection.

Maraxsis also applies its own placement rules: heliostat mirrors are treated as turrets and belong outside pressure domes, while solar power towers are treated as reactors and require dome support. Plan the field around these restrictions and the tower's collection radius. Planet behavior has been checked against the supplied code; complete in-game validation remains outstanding.

Mod compatibility

• Angel's Smelting 2.1.1+ and Bob's Metals 3.0+: mirrors use 5 glass and solar laser towers use 100 glass. Angel-only setups enable Angel's glass plate chain; combined setups use Bob's glass made through Angel's smelting recipes. Research requires Angel's Glass smelting 1 when these materials are selected. Explicit planet glass choices still take priority; Nullius retains its dedicated integration.
• Bob's Power 3.0+: concentrated solar follows the separate tier-one heat-pipe, heat-exchanger, and steam-turbine technologies when present. Their recipes remain unlocked by Bob's research. Disabling the relevant Bob's startup options preserves the original solar unlocks. Existing Bob's heat equipment can consume tower heat; its own temperature and throughput limits still apply.
• Space Age: native platform sunlight and tower quality support.
• Space Exploration: space placement, space-science research requirements, and local sunlight on SE surfaces and ships. Cloned towers and mirrors are registered at their destination.
• Krastorio 2: recipe and research adjustments for Krastorio2, including its current glass and lithium chloride items. Concentrated solar research requires lithium processing.
• Krastorio 2 Spaced Out 2.0.19+: K2 materials and production science, with concentrated solar research following advanced solar panels and lithium processing. Mirrors and towers work on Space Age planets and platforms.
• Nullius 2.1.2+: Nullius materials, crafting categories, and science packs. Mirrors and power towers follow Solar thermal power 2, Glassmaking 2, and Electromagnetism 2. Solar laser towers additionally require Wildlife management 2. Use Nullius heat pipes, heat exchangers, and turbines to turn tower heat into power.
• Moshine, Maraxsis, and Planetaris: Arig: optional glass ingredients through the Glass source startup setting, plus local sunlight handling on their surfaces. Maraxsis placement restrictions and sunless trenches still apply; see Modded planet surfaces above.
• Glass and electric motors: recipes use these ingredients when the corresponding items are available.

Performance

Most mirror and tower bookkeeping happens during construction and removal, with tower and beam updates spread across ticks. Large fields still involve fluid and heat simulation, so performance will depend on the size of your setup.

You can disable beam graphics in runtime mod settings.

Languages

English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese are included. Some translations may still be a little rough.

What's next?

I'd like to keep improving the combat side of the mod, especially its use as an area-of-effect deterrent.