This deck is effectively the top of the ship, and is called the Solar Deck for the simple reason that it has multiple arrays of solar panels, each tied to the power grid at different locations. While the solar grid can be tampered with by saboteurs, the most likely reason for solar problems is battle damage, as the Solar Deck is above the Bridge Deck and thus is the most likely target point for enemies attempting to blast their way through to the ship's vital sections. As the solar deck is part of the outer skin of the ship, the 'floor' tiles here are heavily reinforced so that it takes more than a token effort to cut through.

Each of the ship's Solar Panel Arrays are wired into a matrix governed by a Solar Tracker, which tells the Solar Panels how to position to receive optimum sunlight while in a solar system. Solar Panels are mostly useless outside of a solar system, but seldom require servicing except after space combat, and even a partial solar power grid can maintain emergency systems while the ship is being repaired.

There are four Solar SMES Units, located on the Bridge Deck, which handle the influx of power from the solar panel sections (Solar North, Solar West, Solar East, and Solar South, with North being the front of the ship); checking the connection between the grid and SMES is your first priority if an entire solar unit is off the grid. Each SMES has a ladder leading up to a floorlock (an airlock in the floor-level of the Solar Deck), allowing people to manually check solars, assuming they have a spacesuit. The power conduit is the big black cable leading down from the Solar Deck; it and its connector on the Solar Deck are the first things to check when one of the solar units goes out. If the power conduit is missing entirely due to an especially unlucky hit, rebuild the Power Conduit on the Bridge level, then go up to the Solar level and use the T-ray scanners to locate the Power Conduit so you can connect it back up properly. In a pinch (during emergency repairs, for instance) you can also go up to Solar Deck and wire the remaining solars together to work with the conduits you have.

Each functional solar panel generates 5,000 watts at standard Sol wattage; more powerful stars, or being closer to said stars, will generate more power. A typical bank of 20 panels thus can generate 100,000 watts, or 100 KW, of steady power at standard ranges, enough to power the ship and charge the SMESes slowly while maintaining orbit. For frequent FTL jumps, you'll need the other engines, of course.

NARVs use color coding for their wiring:

Source (Black): Thick cables that connect primary power sources to the SMES they are responsible for charging.

Master (Red): Cables that connect the primary power SMES intakes to the substation backbone. Each Deck has a Substation to channel power.

Power (Yellow): Cables that run between levels to connect the substations together between Decks, allowing power to run between them and allowing them to recharge in the event of a power system failure. Warning: power may exceed 1MW! A special yellow wire runs from this network directly to the PTL and FTL drive (to charge their capacitance banks, respectively).

Internal (Green): Connects a department's rooms and systems with the substation responsible for it.

Priority (Blue): Priority systems have their own SMES located in their vicinity, as do systems using capacitance banks, allowing them to function regardless of what else is going on.

The Port Solar Array consists of 24 panels that route to the Port Solar Power Conduit. This generates a maximum power of 120,000 watts under Sol-standard conditions (1 AU from a Sol-grade star, directly in line of sight), or 24,000 watts if unilluminated but open to space.

The Starboard Solar Array consists of 24 panels that route to the Starboard Solar Power Conduit. This generates a maximum power of 120,000 watts under Sol-standard conditions, or 24,000 watts if unilluminated but open to space.

The Fore Solar Array consists of 20 panels that route to the Fore Solar Power Conduit. This generates a maximum power of 100,000 watts under Sol-standard conditions, or 20,000 watts if unilluminated but open to space.

The Aft Solar Array consists of 20 panels that route to the Aft Solar Power Conduit. This generates a maximum power of 100,000 watts under Sol-standard conditions, or 20,000 watts if unilluminated but open to space.

While the solar panels start out active and functional, damage from FTL travel, space garbage, or worse can easily knock panels loose, break connections, or otherwise render these useful panels nonfunctional. Fortunately, these can easily be fixed when not in the middle of FTL travel, and in a pinch can still power the entire ship (at least, on a budget or feed other engine APCs until they can be activated).

You need:

• Several cable coils
• One space suit or hardsuit
• One crowbar to open doors if the power is out.

The Solars are protected from external bombardment (usually) by large shutters which automatically close during a Red Alert or FTL travel. However, these shutters also prevent the Solars from charging. Should the ship suffer damage, the Solars may also be damaged or nonfunctional. As such, your first order of business to bring them back online is to make sure that the solar panels are connected to their local SMES storage battery, and that the cable from the SMES to the Substation is intact. If these are connected, you should be seeing some sort of power input coming in to the primary SMES, and see the flashing green lights that confirm that it is charging. If you desperately need power back to the other decks, configure the SMES and Substation to maximum input, and output 90% of input. Congratulations, you're done.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, there are ways to make the Solars better. First of all, each set of solar panels connects to a solar tracker, which automatically rotates to face the sun (when functional.) If an array isn't generating power most of the time, it's almost guaranteed that the solar tracker needs to be refitted. You can assemble one from parts with four metal sheets, one glass sheet, and a Solar Tracker board if the previous one is destroyed. Once you've done so, or confirmed that the existing one is undamaged, you should check the calibration on the tracker. If it reads 'Auto-Tracking' and shows the correct number of solar panels, you're done. Otherwise:

• If Auto-Tracking is available but nonfunctional, hit the Reset Tracking button. It will take some time for the unit to resume tracking, but should be automatic. If not, disassemble and reassemble the unit.
• Manual Tracking is an option if you don't feel like dealing with the tracker's tendency to perform slightly erratically and feel particularly hardcore, or just want to eke out maximum performance from a panel series. It lets you set a precise degree (0 to 359) to angle your panels at, as well as a rotation speed. Clearly, this is mostly important in emergencies when every watt counts.

It is important to note that panels work best when actually pointing at a star; parked on Deck A, there is no significant obstruction aside from other solar arrays, so the ship can maximize usage of its solar arrays. When the panels of an array face the sun (and are correctly wired) they produce about 5,000 Watts of power per panel. However, if something is between the panels and the sun, they produce less power depending on the severity of the obstruction, to a lower limit of 1,000 Watts. This means that as the panels rotate with auto-tracking, they move through a series of power levels ranging from panels x 5k (Sol at 1 AU) to potentially nothing (ship obscures sun completely). The rotation cycle varies based on your ship's flight destination and what distance the ship is orbiting from, which also influences the power generated by solars.

An extra way in which solars can produce charge is based on the natural radiative cooling generated from being in space (https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/solar-panels-that-work-at-night-developed-at-stanford/); this allows solars to generate up to 1,000 Watts per panel even when not in range of a star / not able to 'see' a star.

Each solar array charges an SMES cell located next to the solar tracker. The solar tracker drains a minimal amount of power from the SMES in order to remain functional, while the remaining output of the SMES cell, along with power from other arrays, are transferred via wire to the Solar Deck Substation.

SMESs draw power from their connected grid based on their Input and send out power based on their Output. They do not charge if the input setting is higher than the actual amount of power being received, unless set to one of the configuration profiles within RCon. Barring that, attempting to draw 100kW from an 80kW line results in no charge - and no transmission. If the battery charge drops to 0% the battery will stop sending power, even if it is charged again. If machines are turned off due to lack of power, they generally will need to be turned back on again once power is restored.

A common mistake is to immediately set the input to 120,000 or 100,000 watts and the output to 80,000 watts. However, this will not work. The solar batteries (SMES cells) start at 20% power but if no other engine is operating, the ship will drain them to 0% in a few minutes, at which point they will shut off for safety (and thus neither charge nor recharge). Likewise, if the solar cells aren't generating as much input as is needed by the system at a given moment, the system will not charge, so set your input to reasonable levels!

If you don't feel like configuring the SMES cells, you can optionally reroute the wiring and skip the whole battery setup! Just recognize two wires: The wire coming from the Solar Control CPU and going to the SMES cell, and the other wire coming from the SMES cell and going to the substation. Connect these two wires and voilá! You have skipped the SMES cell and saved yourself a lot of time. No need to turn that pesky SMES on at all, just configure the Solar Control CPU and you're done; time to move to the next set of solars!

But there is one big downside to this: the power grid now holds that raw power, which can be potentially lethal if someone routes that in such a way as to electrocute someone or isn't careful when repairing the Solars. Standard Operating Procedure dictates that no point on the grid should have over 1 Megawatt of power running through it for health and safety reasons, which isn't as much of a threat on the Solar Deck, but is still worth remembering.

After you have wired the array, set tracking to auto, and verified that the panels are indeed rotating, set each battery like so:

• Charging: Auto
• Input: 80,000 watts
• Output: 5,000 watts (enough for lighting, environment, and the Solar Tracker)

You want to leave output minimal and let the battery charge before you start send the power to the ship, unless the need is truly urgent. Why? The battery needs this charge to provide sustained power during the dark phase of the solar rotation. If the battery runs out of charge, you'll have to turn it on again or it will not provide power. While you wait for the battery to charge, you can set up the other solar arrays on the ship.

Once the solar SMESes have enough charge, you can connect to them and the Substation via RCon or directly in order to output as much power as the ship needs. Note that if the output load is equal to the output value you set, it means the ship needs more power than it's getting. Crank it up!

The arrays can provide enough energy to power the entire ship in the event of engine failures. However, there are good odds that at least some of them will be damaged and you may have to reconnect solars to the power grid to get them back online.

There are a few dangers in working on the solars; the most obvious one is that the electrical wires may electrocute you if you forgot to wear insulated gloves: never forget or you will get zapped! In addition, you are vulnerable and alone. This leaves you an easy target for anything (or anyone) seeking to assault the ship from space. Finally, there is the chance to misstep and go drifting off through space if you aren't wearing magboots. This hazard is easily solved if you act quickly. Simply throw something in the direction of your flight path, and the equal and opposite reaction will start pushing you in the other direction! However, if the ship starts FTL drive or comes under attack while you're still hovering out there and the shutters lock… well… sucks to be you.

R&D can make solar panels more powerful and more viable as an alternate option for powering the ship; the most important upgrade to the system is the Power Regulator upgrade, which allows your SMESes to take best advantage of the available power in the system (in short, no more needing to be too choosy with your inputs!) You can also upgrade the solar panels themselves to be more efficient and therefore more powerful, as well as more durable and capable of surviving space dust and errant blasts, by working on the Solars tech tree, which requires advancements in Power Regulation, Power Efficiency, and Materials Science. You may also wish to add additional SMESes to each solar array to capture excess power generated when the solars are at maximum power generation (unusually bright stars, overage from main SMES input, etc.)

It is worth noting that the amount of solar power generated if landed is generally reduced by the amount of atmosphere surrounding the ship (and obstructing solar radiation). Expect losses of 0% for no atmosphere, up to 100% for opaque atmospheres (flying through a gas giant, for example.)

The exterior component of the Naval Artillery Cannons below on deck B, meant to fire at medium to long range targets. They generally fire in the direction the ship is pointed, thus running no risk of hitting the solars.

A Thermoelectric Generator is located within the maintenance lobby, along with a furnace with which to warm the lobby when necessary. The TEG gets its power from the thermal difference of the two pipes going through it. The left side is the cold side, and leads outwards to an array of heat exchangers, while the right side is the hot side and pipes into the furnace. Both pipes are loaded with CO2 at the start of the round and have transfer valves to remove or add gas to each loop as needed or desired.

The TEG here is designed to hook directly into the Aft Solar SMES, giving it an initial boost in power so that the Trackers can operate, which is also responsible for powering the lights and air in the Lobby.

Deck A's Thermoelectric Engine warms the Maintenance Lobby with its hot loop, with a furnace being used to generate the heat. A crate of char ore gives the furnace its power, which in turn warms the room and heats the hot loop. It is the simplest TEG setup, although it is not active by default and is generally only used while the engineers are setting up solars and remembering it's an option. It doesn't risk overheating as the furnace's power is limited, and it will gracefully shut down due to heat death once the furnace has run out of fuel and the line temperatures equalize.

This is a small area for engineers to prepare to venture out to service the solar panels and shutters; it includes a ladder down to Deck B's maintenance tunnels, a box of cable wire, a box of rolls of duct tape, a suit storage closet that holds a space suit, and a YouTool vendor. There is also a small Custodial Closet, though there's not much to clean up here.

This small, cramped Custodial Closet contains basic janitorial supplies, specifically two racks with:

• One janitorial belt, which hold six tools or items.
• One light replacer, which replaces light bulbs.
• One box of garbage bags, for waste disposal needs.
• One box of purple nitrile gloves for cleaning up messy spills
• One pair of leather work gloves for replacing hot lightbulbs
• One mop
• One spare bucket
• Two spray bottles
• A tank filled with water for refilling buckets
• A tank filled with space cleaner for refilling spray bottles
• One box of replacement lights
• A box of mousetraps, for small pest problems
• Two cleaner grenades

Each deck has a substation that coordinates power input from other substations. In the case of Solar Deck, it stores a reserve of power to be drawn on for emergencies, and then channels power downwards to the lower decks. The Power Distribution Center on Deck D is the final endpoint for the substations, although each substation is designed to regulate a flow of power inwards (from engines) and outwards (from the PDC through the Spinal Column, which is further explained in Deck D's notes.)