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This is a brief guide studying the various types of energy generating technologies in the game. The idea here is list the scaled inputs and outputs of all the different levels of power plants, so as to determine what the best energy research and building strategy for your empire should be.

I generally consider labor to be the most valuable commodity in Shadow Empire. You only have so many Workers, and once your cities drain all the Free Folk out of their regions, getting more population is extremely difficult (unless you found multiple copies of the ancient Cloning facility, IMO the most insanely OP artifact in the game ... but I digress). So the stat I consider critical is the ratio of energy output to Workers input (E/W ratio).

So what you'll see in the charts below are 3 entries per build level: Workers, (Energy/Workers ratio), other input resources. Personally, I am especially interested in the parenthesized ratio ...


Power Plant (ie, Fuel burning)
I: 1100 (0.45) 500 Fuel
II: 3300 (0.61) 1500 Fuel
III: 6400 (0.70) 2925 Fuel
IV: 10300 (0.78) 4700 Fuel
V: 14800 (0.84) 6750 Fuel
VI: 19800 (0.91) 9000 Fuel
VII: 24900 (0.98) 11375 Fuel

Solar
I: 300 (0.33)
II: 700 (0.42)
III: 1300 (0.46)
IV: 2000 (0.5)
V: 2800 (0.53)

Serpentinization
I: 1100 (0.23)
II: 3300 (0.30)
III: 6400 (0.35)
IV: 10300 (0.39)
V: 14800 (0.42)
VI: 19800 (0.45)
VII: 24900 (0.49)

Volcano
I: 1100 (0.45) 200 Water
II: 3300 (0.61) 400 Water
III: 6400 (0.70) 600 Water
IV: 10300 (0.78) 800 Water
V: 14800 (0.84) 1000 Water
VI: 19800 (0.91) 1200 Water
VII: 24900 (0.98) 1400 Water

Nuclear
I: 1100 (0.45) 1 Rad
II: 3300 (0.61) 3 Rad
III: 6400 (0.70) 6 Rad
IV: 10300 (0.78) 9 Rad
V: 14800 (0.84) 13 Rad
VI: 19800 (0.91) 18 Rad
VII: 24900 (0.98) 23 Rad

Gravitonic (Ancient Artifact!)
I: 100 (5.00)


A few observations: 1) Oil, Volcano and Nuclear all have the exact same Workers, Energy output, and thus E/W ratio per level. They only vary in their resource inputs (with Volcano also needing a specific hex type).

2) Serpentization is the most inefficient E/W tech in the game, with exactly half the efficiencies of the three techs mentioned above. It's only saving grace is that it does not use an input resource. HOWEVER ...

3) ... Solar also does not need an input resource, and is more E/W efficient than Serp. So, except in the extremely unlikely case you managed to research Serp but not Solar, there does not seem to be any reason to ever build a Serp plant. Solar is strictly better than Serp.

4) Fusion Plant technology does not unlock a new building. Rather, it will double the energy output of all your Nuclear Plants. I'm not quite sure if that is before or after production bonuses are factored in, but a level I plant will generate about 1000 Power, instead of about 500 Power, for example.

The fusion plant tech theoretically should duplicate the output of nuclear plants, right now I'm testing in one game, once the nuclear plant its finished I will share the results [:D]

In my opinion, although not being pop efficient, the best combo its the Power plant + Oil converter (Food to Oil) + Hydroponics

ORIGINAL: Clux
In my opinion, although not being pop efficient, the best combo its the Power plant + Oil converter (Food to Oil) + Hydroponics

I'm curious. Why do you prefer this over Solar?

ORIGINAL: newageofpower

ORIGINAL: Clux
In my opinion, although not being pop efficient, the best combo its the Power plant + Oil converter (Food to Oil) + Hydroponics

I'm curious. Why do you prefer this over Solar?

It does allow you to get a lot of power production in a single hex. And you will have Food production anyway, ideally even in each city.
Equally Fuel production is kinda mandatory on a world without fuel.

The biggest downside of Solar is how wide you have to place them for serious production. It is also where solar is still inferior to Serpentinization - At ~25k Production per hex, even something as bad as Serpentinization is better then Solar.

Edited after verifying roughly what Fusion Plant technology does (i.e., doubles Power output).