Manufactured vs. Extractive Energy

The book's central economic distinction in energy production. Manufactured energy (solar panels, batteries, modular reactors) is produced by factories on Wright's Law cost curves, where each doubling of cumulative production reduces unit cost. Extractive energy (oil, gas, coal) is harvested from finite deposits with rising marginal cost as the cheapest reserves are depleted. The two categories move in opposite directions on cost over time, which makes the eventual crossover a structural certainty rather than a political questi