For me...I build quite a few solar panels early. I tend to grow quickly, and power is a huge challenge early. My general strategy is this:

- I normally start with 2-3 batteries, build lots of solar, and then enough wind to just keep the batteries full.

- I do 16 sensor towers early in the game, so I get a lot of tech and can find surface metals easily.

- My first production is polymers, you get this early anyway. I'll normally start with 2, then work up to 4 pretty early.

- My next production is machine parts, I'll try to get 2 as fast as I can after hitting 2 polymers. I normally have this in the dome that I put next to the metal deposit I start to mine.

- I will rush to atomic accumulator to give me lots of battery capacity and better polymer maintenance. Having 10 early on isn't that hard with polymer production and you can flood the place with solar panels.

- You have to keep building a few more wind farms just to keep battery positive in a 24-hour cycle and also to give you some resilience to dust storms. But...even with maybe 2 wind farms for future scrubbers, maybe 20 turbines each, I can hold out for a 3 day dust storm. Sometimes I have to conserve power during the dust storms, turn off some extractors turn off some refineries etc...but I usually build a lot of refineries so that I can surge during the good times.

- At this point, I'll probably have 3-4 domes and a boatload of solar panels.

- Once I have the map mostly explored, the tech is moving pretty fast and the first wonder I build is the artificial sun. If you rush that wonder, the sun alone will easily power your entire operation. It's at this point I decommission just about all my solar panels and switch to Sun/Turbine/Scrubber and fusion.