In previous versions, solar armor created fuel proportional when near a sun/star. This mechanic encouraged boring play: leaving the ship parked on a star for a long time. Starting in 1.8 Alpha 1, we've made the following changes:

• Solar armor now produces power, which goes directly to supply devices. This power offsets reactor power, thus decreasing fuel consumption. But power that isn't consumed by a device is lost. Thus there is no way to accumulate fuel.
• In order to add variety, we've added new light- and heavy- versions of solar armor.

This table shows the properties of various solar armor:

LVL ARMOR               HP   MASS   MAX POWER (per segment)
4   light solar armor   70   2,000  3 MW
5   medium solar armor  100  3,000  5 MW
6   heavy solar armor   150  5,000  8 MW