History Main / EnergyEconomy

* At one point during Joe Haldeman's TheForeverWar, we find out that on the severely overpopulated, starving Earth, calories and kilocalories of sustenance are used as currency.

** Prisms, which have two different kinds: Mana and Rare. These are crystallized mana cubes which can be traded in da Vinci's workshop for Craft Essences, Embers, and Fou cards.

* While rings are used as health and energy in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'', they have been used as a currency in some games, such as ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''.

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* The future segments of ''Literature/TheGreenLeopardPlague'' from the anthology of the same name have the world operating on something like this. Characters are paid for work they do for others in "Calorie Hours" which apparently denotes their use of photosynthetic energy. A crude form was discussed in the flashback segments when a genetic modification was discovered that would allow mammalian bodies to absorb nutrients like a plant, undercutting the world's economy as people who didn't work would no longer be able to starve. Given this would make already undesirable but necessary jobs even less likely to be taken up, a system was needed that would not force people to resort to forced labor.

* The Faltine from Marvel Comics, are a race of energy beings from AnotherDimension who exchange forms of energy like humans would precious minerals. They're name is commonly evoked by magic users like Doctor Strange, as a mutually beneficial exchange of energies.

* In ''Metatropolis'' New St. Louis and associated city-states assign citizens "energy budgets" rather than using money. If someone is kicked out (generally for not getting a job by 20) they're given a credit card with a few ounces of gold on it.

* Believing Earth to have a "petroleum-based economy", in ''TheStrangerers'', the aliens try to pay at a shop using a small can of oil.

While this has not been TruthInTelevision ''yet'', it has been seriously proposed in the past, most notably by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller R. Buckminster Fuller]], as well as by [[http://www.technocracyinc.org/ Technocracy, Inc.]] during its [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement heyday of the 1930s]].

* Creator/HGWells':

[[quoteright:200:[[ComicBook/TheTransformers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Energoncubes.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Pocket change or Lunch?]]

* Energon in ''{{Transformers}}'' is used as currency in parts of the galaxy as well as the primary source of power for the bots and their weapons. This applies primarily to the Marvel Comics run of the comic books and the G1 cartoon; other versions of the franchise tend to either depict the use of some other form of currency or no currency at all.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' uses "energy credits" as money. Power plants generate more energy, which is used to maintain buildings and ships, power robots, and trade for other resources. Although, precious metals are counted as a source of "energy" and according to the technology description of 3 of 4 power plants they are possibly more akin to capacitors than actual generators. This can get kind of ridiculous if you play a ProudMerchantRace (especially after the Magacorp expansion), since you can easily make so much money just from your internal market that your empire uses no actual generators.

* ''VideoGame/{{Transarctica}}'' centers on a train/base that runs on two kinds of coal, lignite and anthracite. Since the world is in the grip of a new ice-age and heating is a premium, lignite is used a the main currency. Anthracite is more energy efficient, less volatile, but more rare, if that runs out, you'll have to fuel your engines with cold cash. If you're in a major hurry, throwing some cash on the boiler may be worth it.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', Macca is the currency of demons, and its energy qualities are taken literally - you use it to power healing devices in the field, and the amount of Macca you pay for items and healing on the ship are justified as being the energy it takes to materialize the items/power the sickbay.

* In Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures'' series, the intergalactic currency units are energy credits. The captain even refuses a detour since rerouting the spaceship would use more energy than his crew makes in a year.

[[quoteright:200:[[Franchise/{{Transformers}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Energoncubes.jpg]]]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' uses "energy credits" as money. Power plants generate more energy, which is used to maintain buildings and ships, power robots, and trade for other resources. Although, precious metals are counted as a source of "energy" and according to the technology description of 3 of 4 power plants they are possibly more akin to capacitors than actual generators.

* Energon in ''{{Transformers}}'' is used as currency in parts of the galaxy as well as the primary source of power for the bots and their weapons.