New Energy Resources in the Making

The landrush of wind energy, its socio-material workings, and its political consequences: On the entanglement of land and wind assemblages in Denmark

“…Second, the upscaling and technological advancements in wind power generation has led to large utility-scale projects requiring more extensive land areas, which has gone hand in hand with a decoupling of the wind estate from the land estate (Horst and Vermeylen, 2010) by experts. Wind energy cannot be harnessed as a “resource” before a “wind farm site” has been constructed (Nadaï and Labussière, 2018; Nadaï and Coïnte, 2020; Kirkegaard and Nyborg, 2021; Wade and Ellis, 2022). That is, to turn the wind into an investable “resource”, a “site” must first be assembled.…”

“…These devices are being used constantly as developers try to put together a feasible wind farm project. Firstly , wind resource maps, such as the European Wind Atlas 1 , help to direct wind farm developers to areas of good wind potential (Kirkegaard and Nyborg, 2021), as different sites can be thought of as having energy reserves “and their energy potential most often quantified” (Nadaï and Labussière, 2018: 57). This quantification of the energy potential is essential for wind farm developers to be able to collect a portfolio of promising sites.…”

Turning Sunlit Rooftops and Windy Sites into Energy Assets

“…At the core of ReN development is the work of turning things such as sunlit roofs or windy sites into productive entities-solar roofs or wind farms producing ReN kilowatt hours-through the siting of material devices (PV panels, wind turbines) (Nadaï et al 2018). The resulting entities convert an untamed flow (sun, wind) into electricity dubbed "renewable" and, in the current French policy context, eligible for stable remuneration (feedin tariff).…”

“…While the resource (sun, wind) remained res communis, the ownership of its energy ended up being governed by that of the technical device harnessing it (PV panel, wind turbine). Only the owner of this device can contract for the tariff, provided they succeed in getting a construction permit (access to the resource)(Nadaï and Labussière 2017;Nadaï et al 2018).…”

De l’or noir à l’or vert : le gaz de mine, une ressource de transition dans le Nord-Pas-de-Calais ?

“…La réflexion s'inscrit dans le champ de la géographie des ressources, et en particulier dans celui des approches relationnelles, critiques de l'essentialisation des ressources dites naturelles. Notre intérêt se concentre sur la manière dont des choses matérielles sont transformées en ressource au sein de l'économie capitaliste (Bridge, 2009), dont leurs qualités sont construites (Fontaine, 2018(Fontaine, , 2020Nadaï et Labussière, 2018a) afin de fonder leur valeur marchande (Castree, 2003) qui est ensuite distribuée au sein d'une coalition d'acteurs. Le processus de mise en ressource du gaz de mine témoigne d'une forme de politisation du sous-sol (Arnaud de Sartre et Chailleux, 2021) 2018 du gaz de mine par la ville de Béthune, comme une étape déterminante de démonstration de ses vertus et de constitution de publics favorables à sa captation.…”