The New Currency: Gigawatts, Not Barrels
Energy has always been the ultimate backstage pass to prosperity. Whoever could concentrate and direct the most joules climbed the global pecking order. Today, we stand at a pivot point where the old oil kingdoms are fading and tomorrow's giants will be measured not by how many barrels they pump, but by how many terawatt-hours they can reliably deliver. The future is electric, and the future is hungry.
Energy: The Original Cheat Code for Civilization
Go far enough back, and superpower status came down to calories. Rome fed legions on grain, Britain harnessed coal to run steam engines, and the 20th-century US rode an ocean of cheap oil to global dominance. Each energy leap (literal horse-power, windmills, water wheels, steam locomotion, internal combustion) multiplied what one human could achieve. Fast-forward to 2025, global primary energy use stands at around 620 exajoules (EJ), with electricity accounting for roughly 20% of final consumption. That slice is about to explode.
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| Universal Energy |
Musk's Megawatt Mantra
Elon Musk has discussed the importance of useful energy output and how it equates to economic output. In his words, "To first approximation, any given country's goods and services production will be proportionate to their energy output." He loves the Kardashev Scale and routinely points out that solar energy hitting Earth every hour dwarfs all human energy use for a year. The bottleneck is not sunlight; it is the collection, storage, and distribution of it. Nations that master those three will become the new superpowers. Everyone else gets a participation trophy (and rolling blackouts).
From Petrostates to Electrostates
The transition has started. We are swapping tailpipes for charging ports and gas furnaces for heat pumps at warp speed. The shift is so broad it deserves its own nickname: I suggest "The Great Electrification." Every machine that once burned something on-site now wants electrons. The table below illustrates the extent of the swap's impact.
| Sector | Old Way (Burn Baby Burn) | New Way (Electron Edition) | Energy Efficiency Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passenger cars | Gasoline ICE | Battery EV | ~300% |
| Home heating | Gas furnace | Heat-pump | ~300-400% |
| Cooking | Natural-gas stove | Induction cooktop | ~40% |
| Heavy trucks | Diesel | Battery EV | ~200-250% |
| Steel making | Coal blast furnace | Electric arc + DRI | ~60% |
| Lawn care | Two-stroke gas mower | Battery electric | ~100% |
| Shipping (short sea) | Bunker fuel | Battery or shore power | ~400% at wheel |
Sources: IEA, Rocky Mountain Institute, and real-world fleet data.
The pattern is unmistakable. Every conversion delivers 2-4x the useful work from the same primary energy. Suddenly, you do not need to replace every drop of oil; you need one-quarter of the primary energy if you deliver it as electricity. This frees up energy for new uses.
The Autonomous Age Accelerates Everything
Self-driving cars, humanoid robots, and AI inference and training clusters consume megawatts aplenty, and the demand curve is going exponential. One million robotaxis driving 100,000 miles per year each could save society billions of barrels of oil while gobbling perhaps 50 TWh of electricity. Check out these links for more on the autonomy tsunami and AI tipping points.
Meanwhile, oil demand has likely peaked forever. Global liquids consumption may top out this year. The fall is just getting started.
Infrastructure Is the New Oilfield
In an all-electric world, three things separate winners from whiners:
- Raw generation (solar and/or wind)
- Storage (batteries, pumped hydro, whatever holds electrons overnight)
- Transmission (high-voltage lines that move power from windy hilltops to hungry urban centers and from sunny southern regions to cloudy northern regions without melting)
Countries standing up battery factories, solar farms, and HVDC lines today are effectively drilling the 21st-century equivalent of supertankers - except with wells that never run dry. Musk saw this coming almost a decade ago when Tesla bought SolarCity to lock in the solar & battery energy combo. Those still building LNG terminals and oil pipelines are polishing the brass on a sinking ship. Stranded assets anyone?
The future is electric, and the future is hungry.
Wrapping Up
The punchline is simple. Yesterday's giants grew rich by mastering combustion. Tomorrow's giants will grow rich by mastering conduction. The nations that generate, store, and move the most electrons will power the most robots, train the best AI models, and deliver the highest living standards. Oil will not disappear overnight, but its strategic importance is evaporating faster than a Blockbuster Video membership. We are trading petrostates for electrostates, and the currency has changed from black goo to bright sparks. The race is on, and the finish line is a future free from fossil fuels.
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