diff --git a/package/powertop/Config.in b/package/powertop/Config.in
index f157f4618a..5ba83b3c23 100644
--- a/package/powertop/Config.in
+++ b/package/powertop/Config.in
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_POWERTOP
 	depends on !BR2_bfin
 	# libnl dependency
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
+	depends on BR2_USE_WCHAR
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_NCURSES
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_PCIUTILS
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBNL
@@ -13,6 +14,6 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_POWERTOP
 
 	  https://01.org/powertop/
 
-comment "powertop needs a toolchain w/ threads"
+comment "powertop needs a toolchain w/ threads, wchar"
 	depends on !BR2_bfin
-	depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
+	depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS || !BR2_USE_WCHAR
diff --git a/package/powertop/powertop.mk b/package/powertop/powertop.mk
index 331edc9f5d..87da5a4051 100644
--- a/package/powertop/powertop.mk
+++ b/package/powertop/powertop.mk
@@ -18,4 +18,12 @@ POWERTOP_DEPENDENCIES += gettext
 POWERTOP_CONF_ENV += LIBS='-lintl'
 endif
 
+# Help powertop at finding the right ncurses library depending on
+# which one is available.
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_NCURSES_WCHAR),y)
+POWERTOP_CONF_ENV += ac_cv_search_delwin="-lncursesw"
+else
+POWERTOP_CONF_ENV += ac_cv_search_delwin="-lncurses"
+endif
+
 $(eval $(autotools-package))