The Age of Abundance
The post-war economic boom was powered by cheap oil and expanding electricity grids.
For the first time, the correlation between energy consumption and prosperity became unmistakably clear.
Oil cost just $3 per barrel. Economies grew at 4-6% annually. The future seemed limitless.
The 1973 Oil Crisis
OPEC's embargo proved that energy is a weapon. Oil prices quadrupled overnight.
Economies that seemed invincible suddenly looked vulnerable. Gas lines stretched for miles.
The world learned a harsh lesson: dependence on foreign energy is a strategic weakness.
France's Nuclear Bet
After the oil crisis, France made a bold decision: go all-in on nuclear power.
By the 1980s, over 70% of French electricity came from nuclear. Energy independence achieved.
French electricity prices became among the lowest in Europe. The bet paid off.
Chernobyl's Shadow
April 26, 1986. A single accident at Chernobyl shifted global nuclear policy for decades.
Some countries doubled down on nuclear. Others began planning their exit.
Germany's eventual decision to phase out nuclear power traces back to this moment.
The Fracking Revolution
The United States unlocked shale oil and gas, transforming from importer to exporter.
Natural gas prices collapsed from $13 to $3 per MMBtu. Manufacturing returned to America.
U.S. oil production more than doubled in a decade. The geopolitical implications were massive.
Germany's Green Gamble
After Fukushima, Germany committed to shutting down all nuclear plants while scaling up renewables.
Ambitious goals met complex reality. Electricity prices soared to among Europe's highest.
As nuclear plants closed, dependence on Russian gas deepened. A vulnerability waiting to be exposed.
The 2022 Energy Crisis
Russia invaded Ukraine. Europe's energy vulnerability was brutally exposed.
Gas prices spiked 10x. Industrial competitiveness crumbled. Factories closed.
Decades of policy choices had consequences. Emergency coal plants were restarted.
The Fastest Thing on the Grid
Solar was 2.7% of the world's electricity in 2019 and is 9.2% now. That six-year gain is the largest by any fuel at any point in this data - close to double wind's best run, and more than coal managed at the height of its expansion in the 2000s.
It has drawn level with wind, having been less than half its size when the run began. The countries doing it are not the ones anyone would have picked: solar passed coal on Pakistan's grid in 2025, and Hungary now takes a larger share of its power from panels than sunnier Portugal does.
None of which has dented coal, still the single largest source of electricity on earth at about a third of it. Both are true at once - the fastest change the grid has ever recorded, and the oldest fuel still on top.
One Channel, Twenty Miles Wide
Roughly a fifth of the world's oil, and a large share of its liquefied gas, leaves through a single channel about twenty miles across at its narrowest. The Strait of Hormuz has always been the most concentrated risk in the energy system, and for decades it held.
When that route is interrupted the price of everything moves - not because the oil has stopped existing, but because it cannot get to where it is burned. Shipping insurance, gas contracts and industrial output reprice within days of each other.
The part nobody had costed: Qatar produces much of the world's helium as a by-product of the same gas, and it leaves by the same water. Helium cannot be manufactured, only extracted. Semiconductor fabs need it to make chips, and every MRI scanner in every hospital needs it to stay cold.
Electricity is the one link in that chain a country can choose to build at home. That is the argument this whole site is making.