Probing how value comes to matter in the energy transition: Good-by-Devicing?

Introduction

While the climate crisis accentuates the need to decouple economies from fossil fuels, local opposition in Europe increasingly delays the transition to renewable energy. Arguing that the energy transition has been organised as an expert issue pursued by design tools based in techno-economic valuation, Good-by-Devicing proposes that resistance to renewable energy cannot be solved when opposition has already solidified in the phase of project planning and development.

Project Goals

Instead, this project seeks to accommodate broader social concerns over the impacts of the energy transition much earlier, by inquiring into the design phase where experts develop and use critical design tools such as:

• Energy scenarios
• Digital simulations
• Procurement schemes

These devices incorporate expert decisions on what concerns to include and exclude in the design of the energy transition.

Hypothesis

Hypothesising that rising opposition has roots in colliding valuations of the value of energy transition and what concerns should be accounted for in devices, Good-by-Devicing probes a position where renewable energy can be deployed with sufficient pace, but where broader social values are encompassed in the design tools that shape our energy future.

Case Study

To shed light on how value comes to matter in the energy transition, the project uses the case of the contested development of the world's first 'energy islands' in Denmark. The natural island of Bornholm is used as a strategic research site to ask how the energy transition could be valued otherwise, encompassing broader social concerns.

Theoretical Framework

Combining perspectives in Science & Technology Studies of Valuation Studies and the Sociology of Expertise, the project provides a new understanding of local opposition to renewables. It contributes to:

1. The Social Acceptance literature
2. Valuation Studies
3. The new notion of the good economy

Conclusion

The project explores how the ‘good fossil-free society’ could be re-devised to account for social concerns, thereby reducing conflict.