Energy currency

From Appropedia

A currency backed by energy. This type of currency could be used to create an energy economy - a method for a local currency to be implemented in any community. The problem with many local currencies such as LETS ^[1] or Ithaca hours is that in businesses that are not a part of the program the currency is useless. However, if the currency can be used by ANY business or community member it can scale. A currency backed by renewable energy achieves this goal. The technology is finally available to make this happen.

Of the many advantages to such a system - adoption of a energy currency could correct the current market failure to address climate change by realigning economics with the reality of net energy.

[edit] Sources for Further Reading on the general topic:

• Local Energy - Local Currency - Local Power by Rob Hopkins
• Shann Turnbull in articles called Selecting a Community Currency
• Democratising the Wealth of Nations - from new money sources and profit motives
• David Boyle’s “The Money Changers”
• “Notes on the World Kilowatt Dollar” (note that a kilowatt is a unit of power not energy...)
• Energy as a currency at Energy and Life
• in the Schumacher Society by Robert Swann, called “The Place of a Local Currency in a World Economy”
• World Kilowatt Dollar

There has also been significant discussion in the literature about an "energy currency" based in the hydrogen economy but this is more focused around an economy run on hydrogen rather than say oil not as the the hydrogen being the means of exchange.

See also

• Local Currencies at Wikipedia
• An International Energy Clearing Union [1]

References

1. ↑ (LETS)

This could be another possibility to our economic problems. By using a currency backed by Energy. IF Energy is full of abundance then that means there would be enough currency out there to use, as well as matching the value of how much energy it takes to make a product. This in hand will help push an Energy Revolution to see how much people can create clean and renewable energy for a currency based, to buy goods and services.

IF you look at it how everything on the planet takes energy to be made or produced then the value of the energy to the value of the currency will never change, it will never inflate, and never fail.

Where would be the incentive:? People will learn on they're own how to develop more cleaner energy by being creative at designing electromagnets or whatever else works to bring in the most amount of energy possible, that in turn brings in a currency for that person to buy goods and services, that are balanced and valued at the amount of energy used to create the item or service.

Now imagine this, it will boost our civilization in a total of abundance of items, products and services. Everything has to be check and logged to see how much energy it takes to make a product or to offer a service. Ex: (The resources used for the product, the transportation of that item and the energy it took to make it.) This will make our world have more clean and renewable energy and at the same time Transform our society.

This is something we can use before we finally have enough electricity to run the entire system, and keep each building and home Energy independant.