Energy/Power

[Still Life with Viking]

The one concept I seem to be missing is about converting from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Can you get rid of oil/coal once you harness renewable or is the game engine taking this into account as you build renewable energy plants?

[James]

I was able to switch between coal/oil/nuclear once built, but the game wouldnt let me stop having power plants in a city once one was built

[Prometheus]

Power is supplied from a city with a source. It can and will supply multiply cities if needed. You can check the power tab in city reports to see exactly what is going on.

The game will automatically chose the best source. So if you have a hydroelectric dam and a coal plant, then if all demands are met from the dam, that will be used, and the coal plant is switched off. That is automatic. Same goes for solar etc.

You can switch between coal, oil and nuclear plants anyway you see fit. It is in the projects part of the build menu... at the very bottom.

[Paulytnz]

I can see why you might be concerned that you can't "turn them off" or remove the building completely once you have gone green.

In my first game I had just 1 city in the middle of my small main nation (all the rest were flung on islands or in mini nations) with a factory supplying power to the other 4 or 5 cities near it. I ignored Coal/Oil factories and simply waited for Nuclear.

Had that running for a while until I went green with Windfarms/Solar Farms and Offshore Windfarms. Doing this will have those cities use their power sources first over the Factory that my main city provided. I got to the point where the Nuclear Plant was not giving any city any power as I got them all (including the city with the Power Plant) to go green and provide their own power from that.

So I thought to myself, no point using the Nuclear Power Plant now, it's not supplying power and is probably still at risk of a Nuclear Meltdown. Can't be sure. Just like we can't be sure if then doing what I did - changing from the Nuclear to a Coal Plant is any better. Sure the Nuclear Meltdown risk may be gone. But are we now producing more pollution even tho the Coal Plant is not providing power to anyone?

We just can't be sure until Firaxis gives us an answer I suppose. Which is why I guess the OP made this thread in the first place. Maybe the wrong question was just asked? Not sure. :)

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by Paulytnz:

We just can't be sure until Firaxis gives us an answer I suppose. Which is why I guess the OP made this thread in the first place. Maybe the wrong question was just asked? Not sure. :)

You are not, and you can be sure. You can look into the city reports tab, as you already do, and then you can cross-check consumption, by hovering the mouse over your stockpile of strategics in the top of the map. It tells you which resources are being burned for power and how many.

ALL emissions come from resource use. If no resource is burned = 0 emissions.

[Paulytnz]

Originally posted by Prometheus:

Originally posted by Paulytnz:

We just can't be sure until Firaxis gives us an answer I suppose. Which is why I guess the OP made this thread in the first place. Maybe the wrong question was just asked? Not sure. :)

You are not, and you can be sure. You can look into the city reports tab, as you already do, and then you can cross-check consumption, by hovering the mouse over your stockpile of strategics in the top of the map. It tells you which resources are being burned for power and how many.

ALL emissions come from resource use. If no resource is burned = 0 emissions.

Ah thanks, I will double check that my next playthrough. I guess in my last game I was sort of in a rush to get through it once I had hit that point and didn't look too hard at those screens.

[soloowaty]

I have huge problems with solar farms. I've built a whole lot of them, and yet my cities don't seem to use them. For example - I have a city that consumes 2 energy, it has 3 solar farms, so 6 energy should be available from renewable sources (if I understand one solar plant provides 2 energy), and yet it converts 2 energy from resources. Am I missing something or is it broken? I haven't tried other renewable sources yet though.

[Prometheus]

Here is some more information.

What are the emission weights?

Oil is 1,6666 CO2 per unit, and coal is 3,6666. Don't know uranium yet.



What counts for emissions?

All resource usage. That is unit production, unit upkeep, unit upgrade, railroads and power. Thus unit upkeep can be much worse than power production.


What else is important?

Deforestation. Deforestation procentage in the CO2 menu kicks in per civ as they undertake industrialisation. It is a global modifier so ALL emissions to do date are affected by current deforestation. So your emissions of 700 CO2 @ 20% deforestation is global CO2 700 x 1,2 = 840 total from you global. If the next turn an AI adds its deforestation, and you now jump to 30% then you get 700 x 1,3 = 910 your contribution. Thus massive deforestation can almost double the effect of global emissions.


Can I do something to remove CO2?

Recapture project removes 50 CO2. Planting trees might also reduce deforestation modifier.


Can I get submerged tiles back or reverse Global warming?

No.

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by soloowaty:

I have huge problems with solar farms. I've built a whole lot of them, and yet my cities don't seem to use them. For example - I have a city that consumes 2 energy, it has 3 solar farms, so 6 energy should be available from renewable sources (if I understand one solar plant provides 2 energy), and yet it converts 2 energy from resources. Am I missing something or is it broken? I haven't tried other renewable sources yet though.

Yes. You can be in the situation that your city is supplying another city. You can check in city reports, power tab. It tells you where the power is sent, and what produced it.

As an example, my capital has an oil power plant and supplied 5 cities with power. I could see every single one of those in the power tab. The closest city was not supplied from my capital. It had an hydroelectric dam.

Supply has a range, that I currently do not know how is calculated.

[Paulytnz]

Originally posted by Prometheus:

Originally posted by soloowaty:

I have huge problems with solar farms. I've built a whole lot of them, and yet my cities don't seem to use them. For example - I have a city that consumes 2 energy, it has 3 solar farms, so 6 energy should be available from renewable sources (if I understand one solar plant provides 2 energy), and yet it converts 2 energy from resources. Am I missing something or is it broken? I haven't tried other renewable sources yet though.

Yes. You can be in the situation that your city is supplying another city. You can check in city reports, power tab. It tells you where the power is sent, and what produced it.

As an example, my capital has an oil power plant and supplied 5 cities with power. I could see every single one of those in the power tab. The closest city was not supplied from my capital. It had an hydroelectric dam.

Supply has a range, that I currently do not know how is calculated.

As far as I am aware it's the 6 tiles that the Factory gives the usual production bonuses to other cities. No idea if say a Windmill or Solar plant can supply other cities besides their city. If so that is not in the in game civpedia that I have seen anywhere yet.

[PhilkIced]

Originally posted by soloowaty:

I have huge problems with solar farms. I've built a whole lot of them, and yet my cities don't seem to use them. For example - I have a city that consumes 2 energy, it has 3 solar farms, so 6 energy should be available from renewable sources (if I understand one solar plant provides 2 energy), and yet it converts 2 energy from resources. Am I missing something or is it broken? I haven't tried other renewable sources yet though.

Is there a citizen actually working the solar tile?

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

There's a few mods that have just popped up. Decommission and something power plants. Sounds like exactly what's your guys are after

[Still Life with Viking]

Originally posted by Prometheus:

Power is supplied from a city with a source. It can and will supply multiply cities if needed. You can check the power tab in city reports to see exactly what is going on.

The game will automatically chose the best source. So if you have a hydroelectric dam and a coal plant, then if all demands are met from the dam, that will be used, and the coal plant is switched off. That is automatic. Same goes for solar etc.

You can switch between coal, oil and nuclear plants anyway you see fit. It is in the projects part of the build menu... at the very bottom.

Thanks Prometheus, I thought that's what was doing but I was geared up with winning I didn't monitor the power situation and carbon emissions that closely.

[soloowaty]

Originally posted by PhilkIced:

Originally posted by soloowaty:

I have huge problems with solar farms. I've built a whole lot of them, and yet my cities don't seem to use them. For example - I have a city that consumes 2 energy, it has 3 solar farms, so 6 energy should be available from renewable sources (if I understand one solar plant provides 2 energy), and yet it converts 2 energy from resources. Am I missing something or is it broken? I haven't tried other renewable sources yet though.

Is there a citizen actually working the solar tile?

Yes, there is. This is how it looks: http://prntscr.com/mnn7m4

[Aieonae]

They should include a means to decommission the plants.

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

There are mods that allow decommissioning