Build your first rig
Four steps from a pile of parts to a lit house. No skill is needed to place, wire or run a rig; skills only matter for building the parts.
Put down a Charge Controller, one or more Solar Arrays and a Battery Bank, the same way you place furniture. Arrays need open sky: outdoors, not under a roof. Facing south gives the most power.
Right-click the Battery Bank, Off-Grid › Batteries, and drag car batteries from your inventory into the bays. Each bay holds one battery, and each battery keeps its own condition and charge. A Battery Bank has 6 bays, an Improvised Battery Crate 3, and a Sealed Battery Cabinet 8.
Right-click a Solar Array, Off-Grid › Run cable from here, then right-click the controller, Off-Grid › Connect Solar Array. Do the same for the Battery Bank. Arrays can chain to arrays and banks to banks; every chain ends at the controller. One cable run reaches up to 12 tiles (Sandbox: Link radius).
Right-click the controller, Off-Grid › Switch on. It shows STARTING UP for a moment, then lights and fridges within 20 tiles run. Watch it all on Off-Grid › System monitor.
A running controller can't be picked up or rotated: switch it off first.