Renewable Energy Complexity

Renewable Energy Complexity makes everything about renewable energy in the late eras more engaging and rewarding. Receive more green electricity with smart placement of improvements and transfer that green electricity to other cities (or even other civilizations).

Update: As of Juli 2020, this mod has received an overhaul and bonuses from improvements have been streamlined. Some things have been renamed. The Battery Power Station now has an actual 3D model on the map!

The building model was made by Firaxis and has simply been cut content but part of the game files so far, all credit goes to their artists for it!

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Gathering Storm is all about interacting with the environment. The final stage of this is switching over to renewable energies. Yet, there is very little environment interaction about them. Solar on flat, wind on hills, and a single improvement does not even provide enough power for a single building.

This mod makes these improvements more interesting. Each improvement starts out weak but is unlocked earlier and can generate more power than before with new technologies and the right placement. Two new battery storage buildings allow you to transfer "Renewable Battery Charges" gained from these tech upgrades and placement bonuses.

New Buildings: a Substation to "collect" local renewable energy (built in the city center) and a Power Station, a power plant which distributes the energy to all cities within six tiles and provides production, science, and culture to those cities a well. The Power Station has to be built in the Industrial Zone and is mutually exclusive with other power plants. If you already have another power plant built, you can convert it with a project the same way the traditional power plants can be converted into each other,.

To compensate for increased power available from renewable energy improvements, Reina the Financier now only provides +1 extra Power to these improvements in the city she is stationed in (only with the respective promotion, of course). She also provides 1 extra Renewable Battery Charge from each of these improvements and buildings.

Here are the changes to improvements and buildings in detail. They all provide +1 Science, +1 Production, and +1 Gold by default now.

GEOTHERMAL POWER
Default Power: 2

Unlocks with: Synthetic Materials
+1 Power with: Offworld Mission
New placement options: can also be built on Volcanic Soil*
Extra Bonus from good placement: +1 Power, +1 Production, and +2 Gold if built on Geothermal Fissure

WIND FARM
Default Power: 2
Unlocks with: Synthetic Materials
+1 Power with: Composites
Extra Bonus from good placement: +1 Power and +2 Gold if built next to coast

OFFSHORE WIND FARM
Default Power: 2
Unlocks with: Composites
+1 Power with: Predictive Systems
New placement options: can also be built on Ocean (requires Seasteads technology)
Extra Bonus from good placement: +1 Power and +2 Gold if built on Ocean
Seasteads receive +1 Gold for every adjacent Offshore Wind Farm

SOLAR FARM
Default Power: 1
Unlocks with: Satellites
+1 Power with: Predictive Systems
New placement options: can also be built on Snow (Tundra and Snow placement require Advanced Power Cells technology)
Extra Bonus from good placement: +1 Power and +1 Gold if built on Grasslands or Plains; +2 Power and Gold if built on Desert

HYDROELECTRIC DAM
Default Power: 4
Unlocks with: Electricity
+3 Power with: Computers
Yield changes: +3 Production; Maintenance increased to 2 Gold

*Unfortunately, "next to volcano" was not possible, so I chose Volcanic Soil as the next best option.

I recommend supplementing this mod with more tweaks to climate change so that switching to renewable energy later in the game actually becomes a necessity of survival. Climate Balance is a collection of mods (also available as a bundle) which offers everything around climate change, from more flooding and disasters to slower climate change as such.
If you’re interested in more Complexity mods, look here.