Power
$0.196 $/kWh
US average retail electricity (BLS CPI average price, U.S. city average)
Watts & Tons
A free weekly index of the physical economy, priced in physical units. Edition of 2026-10-21. Watch Elon Musk on wattage and tonnage
Watt-Ton reading
What $1,000 buys this week:
5,102
kWh324
GPU-hours (H100)18,832
ton-miles by rail0.14
kg to orbit69
kg of copperWatt-Ton basket
$22,542
The cost of one fixed basket of physical goods at the latest sourced prices: 1,000 kWh, 100 H100 GPU-hours, 10,000 rail ton-miles, 1 kg to orbit, 1 metric ton of copper and 1 tonne CO2e. Simple sum, no weights beyond the quantities, US-dollar items only. Inputs have different dates (shown below), so this is a snapshot, not a time series; week-over-week: n/a. Formula.
| 1,000 kWh of US retail electricity | $196.00 | 2026-09 |
| 100 H100 GPU-hours | $309.00 | 2026-10-21 |
| 10,000 rail ton-miles | $531.00 | 2024 (annual) |
| 1 kg to orbit (rideshare) | $7,000.00 | 2026-08 |
| 1 metric ton of copper | $14,474.00 | 2026-09 |
| 1 tonne CO2e (California allowance) | $32.48 | 2026-08-19 |
| Total | $22,542.48 |
|---|
The index
Power
$144.72 $/MWh
PJM West hub real-time peak, 7-day average of daily weighted-average prices (ICE via EIA)
Compute
$3.09 $/GPU-hour
H100 SXM rental, Ornn Compute Price Index (OCPI)
Freight
$0.0531 $/ton-mile
US rail revenue per ton-mile, all waybill movements (STB Carload Waybill Sample, 2-digit STCC summary)
Launch
$7,000 $/kg to orbit
SpaceX rideshare published rate, 2026 launches (SSO/LEO)
Metals
$14,474 $/metric ton
Copper, LME grade A (World Bank Pink Sheet)
Metals
$3,283 $/metric ton
Aluminum (World Bank Pink Sheet)
Metals
$1,255 $/short ton
US hot-rolled coil, Nucor Consumer Spot Price (producer-announced), as reported by SteelPrices
Carbon
$32.48 $/metric ton CO2e
California–Québec joint auction #48 current-auction settlement price
Carbon
€85.10 €/tCO2
EU ETS allowance (EUA) primary auction clearing price, EEX (Auction 4. Period CAP3 EU)
Converter
Why watts and tons
Musk
- Elon Musk post on X, Feb 2026: wattage and tonnage will matter, not dollars.
- Elon Musk post on X, Jul 2026: the economy measured in energy and mass, not dollars.
- Elon Musk follow-up post on X: energy and mass as separate scarcities.
- The Builders with Walter Isaacson, Oct 20 2026 (YouTube interview).
Mass
- Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works (book page).
- Vaclav Smil in TIME on the four material pillars: cement, steel, plastics, ammonia, with annual tonnages.
- Vaclav Smil, Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization.
- UN International Resource Panel Global Material Flows Database.
- FRED series TRUCKD11, US truck tonnage index (FRED was in maintenance when checked). UNVERIFIED
Energy
- Ayres and Warr, Accounting for growth: the role of physical work (2005).
- World Bank: energy intensity level of primary energy per unit of GDP.
- Kardashev, 1964, Soviet Astronomy: the origin of the Kardashev scale (page behind bot check). UNVERIFIED
History
- Technocracy Inc., The Energy Certificate, 1938 (full text).
- Howard Scott, Science vs. Chaos, Technocracy Inc., 1933.