Fragmenting deliberation: Green hydrogen and the conditions for public participation

Abstract

Green hydrogen has emerged as one of the key technologies for the energy transition, both in the Global North and the Global South. However, hydrogen production is located on spatially bounded facilities, and current configurations of hydrogen are riddled with uncertainties. This article analyses how the production of green hydrogen is enrolled in the energy transition and inquire into the specific democratic challenges that this assemblage technology produces. Comparing the conditions of three energy transition in Denmark, Spain and Argentina, it examines how green hydrogen is enabled through different laws and practices that (in)directly facilitate its implementation, how it is legitimized through various kinds of visual and discursive representations as well as the implications are for the conditions of participation. The article argues that although the projects are not very concrete in material terms, the constellations of market and state have shaped the participatory spaces of civil society, generating important effects in the territories, but few democratic openings in local societies.