I just noticed if you have green energy and it's already all green you get a lot more points putting a different color and letting it change than if you just put green on top of the green. What mechanic accounts for that?
That's the spill bonus. You get +1 multiplier for each square in your placed block that changes colors. So in your case when you place lets say a blue block on all green board, they all change to cyan ie. 0% spillage (+4 bonus multi) but then afterwards they turn back to green.