Exactly. After this update, you no longer have to carefully place the solar panels to make them connect to the desired machine.
I should have fixed this a long time ago. I think I got so used to doing it myself that I forgot it was an issue.
The default connection range is now 1 meter and can be adjusted.
So the solar panel is very unlikely to connect to something you don't want it to connect to. You have a lot of control over things.
You can also set a custom default range for all machines you place in the build settings menu that is opened by pressing the '=' key.