"money is a form of energy" is nonsense. yet it is an interesting kind of nonsense that contributes to the discussion.
I think it makes more sense to regard money as a kind of messaging technology that enables decentralised coordination and prioritisation of economic activities in the real economy. But you have to remember that the messaging technology of money is not itself the real economy. It is certainly not energy. Messaging and coordination systems cost energy to run. Adding a better messaging and coordination system might allow a society to run its real physical economy more efficiently, but the messaging and coordination system in itself does not produce energy.
Here's a dumb thought experiment:
Suppose there is a pre-industrial society on island A. The economy is based on agriculture and livestock. The citizens of island A society develop a system of currency using conch shells, which they can use to track debts accrued and favours owed. Adjacent to island A is the nearby uninhabited island wilderness of island B, filled with natural resources. Inconveniently, a very deep 20 metres wide chasm separates island A from island B. After years of effort with several fatalities and misadventures, the citizens of island A manage to traverse the gap and build a sturdy bridge allowing people, livestock and goods to cross. Some economic activity spreads to island B, but the terrain is not productive for livestock and livestock remain on island A.
You are one of the pioneers on the frontier of island B, attempting to establish a farm. You would like to rent some of the livestock belonging to your business partner on island A, to provide energy to clear land and establish your new field more easily.
Calamity strikes: there is an earthquake which causes bridge between island A and island B collapses! People, livestock and large trade goods can no longer cross the chasm until the bridge can be repaired. However, the gap is small enough to communicate across by shouting. If you really want, you could also bundle up a sack of conch shell money and sling it across the gap.
Rather inconveniently for the pioneers on island B, there were no livestock on island B at the moment the bridge collapsed.
Even without a bridge, to hire your business partner's livestock, you are still able to make a payment of money across the chasm to your business partner. You can choose to sling over a bundle of money across. Alternatively, the central bankers of island B and island A can shout across the 20 metre gap to negotiate the transaction and ensure the transaction is recorded consistently in each island's clay tablets in the traditional manner (Paxos).
However, there is no way for your business partner's livestock to get across the gap until the bridge is reconstructed. It may take years of very dangerous work to rebuild it.
The system of money and financial transactions still functions across the chasm, but it is completely unable to transfer livestock-powered energy.
The messaging & debt-tracking system (conch shells, clay tablets, shouted agreements) is not the same thing as the real economy (oxen energy to plough your fields).