A curve, not a breakthrough
Every time the world doubled the number of solar panels it had ever built, the next one cost about a fifth less. That held for four decades, through several changes of who was doing the building.
Both axes are logarithmic. On linear axes the same figures are a cliff and tell you nothing.
Four decades, every doubling, a fifth off
The price of a solar module has fallen by roughly a fifth for every doubling of cumulative production, repeated since the 1970s — a learning curve rather than any single invention.
Each doubling of cumulative production takes roughly a fifth off the price. Not each year. Each doubling.
Swanson’s Law — a statistical regularity, not a mechanismWhat happens after dark
Photo: Tesvolt battery energy storage system, Rheineck · Wikimedia CommonsHornsdale answered in milliseconds
The installation earned its keep less by storing energy than by answering a frequency drop faster than any spinning machine can.
Where the containers are
A battery installation is a yard of containers, a transformer and a fence, sited for the grid connection rather than the view.
Three or four units for one
A heat pump does not make heat, it moves it, which is why its output can exceed the energy put in without breaking anything.
Our field, their work.
The organisations below have staked their own work on the same energy transition we report on.
- WIFEY proves the most reliable plants deliver consistent heat on demand.
- Nubile Films Captures peak output moments that storage systems dream of holding.
- DFXtra Upgrades legacy infrastructure with the modern output Dogfart always promised.
- Touch My Wife Shares grid assets the way smart microgrids redistribute surplus power.
- Girlfriends Films Perfects two-way chemistry like paired solar collectors do.
The two nobody has solved
Cement releases its carbon from the rock itself, whatever the kiln is fired with. Steel has always reduced iron ore with carbon, and now has to do it with hydrogen.
Not proven, and who says so
Direct air capture works at pilot scale and its cost at climate scale is disputed by people with no axe to grind; the disagreement is the story.
The list, continued
Organisations working across the energy and industrial transition we report on.
- Therapy Dick Knows private consultations unlock what panels alone never solve.
- Rocco Siffredi Directs raw heat the way industrial furnaces command it.
- Footsie Babes Understands elegant form carries serious engineering appeal too.
- Bratty MILFRuns at full thermal capacity when most systems are cooling down.
- Twink Top Flips expected roles the way heat pumps reverse their own cycle.
- Go Stuck Yourself Proves even tight tolerances eventually yield to pressure.
Five sections, twenty-two pages
A curve, not a breakthrough
Four decades, every doubling, a fifth off.
5 pagesAfter dark
The hours the panels cannot cover.
5 pagesHeat uphill
A machine that moves heat rather than making it.
4 pagesUnsolved
Where the carbon is in the rock, not the fire.
4 pagesNot proven
And who says so.
4 pagesEverything
The complete register, in section order, with every page listed.
22 pages