As you get closer to the Industrial era in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm, you’ll start to need power to keep your buildings operating at maximum capacity. Cities that lack power will suffer from less yields. Our Civ 6 Power guide will help you understand the new power system, what options you have to produce power, and what the trade offs are.
First, a couple of general points: Power is binary. Either your entire city has enough power, or it doesn’t, and everything in the city suffers. Also, a power plant can provide electricity to any city within six tiles of it.
Civ 6 Power Sources
There are three sources of power: Coal, Oil, and Uranium. It’s worth noting that consumable resources now stockpile up to a maximum level. Barracks, Stables, Armories and Military Academies all increase your stockpile limit by ten each. The rate they accumulate depends on how many sources you have in your civilization.
Power plants will automatically consume enough resources per turn to satisfy the demand. They’ll always choose resources in this order:
- The resource that has the largest stockpile.
- The next largest stockpile.
- If there’s a tie, the city will choose the one that is gaining more per turn.
- If there’s still a tie, the city will go with the more advanced resource.
Coal Power Plants
- Coal provides four power per resource burned. Injects a lot of CO2 into the environment.
- Gives one citizen slot and one Great Engineer point per turn.
Oil Power Plants
- Oil provides four power per resource burned. Produces a moderate amount of CO2.
- Comes with three production, one citizen slot, and one Great Engineer point per turn.
Uranium Power Plants
- Uranium provides 16 power per resource burned. Injects “minuscule” amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
- Can result in Nuclear Accidents if not maintained correctly. Needs to be maintained with a city project or surrounding tiles can be damaged. For details, see our disasters guide.
Converting Power Plants
You can complete a city project to convert power plants from one type to another, either backwards or forwards.
Modern Era Civ 6 Power Sources
Even later in the game, you’ll unlock future technology which can provide clean energy at no cost to the environment.
- A hydroelectric dam is a conversion of the dam district which provides six power from renewable water sources.
- Wind Farms are constructed by builders. They provide three gold, one production, and two power per turn. They must be built on hill tiles, however.
- There is also an offshore version of the wind farm, also constructed by builders, that offers one gold, two production, and two power per turn. As the name implies, they must be on coast, lake, or ocean hexes.
- Solar farms, you guess it, are constructed by builders and offer one gold, two production, and two clean power per turn.
- If you have geothermal vents in your territory, builders can eventually construct a geothermal plant over them. This provides one science, two production, and four clean power per turn.
This overhauled power system is primarily what drives the new world climate system and climate change. We go over the implications of a warming Civilization world in our disasters guide.
That’s it for our Civ 6 Power guide! Have questions about other new Gathering Storm features? Head on over to our Diplomacy guide, Disasters guide, or leaders guide!
