Good energy

Abstract

Climate change and its consequences have led to calls for accelerating and upscaling renewable energy developments. Yet, these advances and changes to existing energy infrastructures often produce controversy and bring with them unforeseen consequences of their own. These controversies are tied to questions of what is ‘good’ and what counts as ‘good energy’. Key to understanding this are the tools, devices, and expertise that have been used in the design of our energy future. After introducing the state-of-the-art on valuation struggles over the energy transition, the lecture sets out a new research direction, pointing towards a Critical Sociology for the Agencing and Devicing of Expertise to critically probe the (often invisible) role of expert devices in valuing what kind of energy future should come to count. Empirical examples used are wind energy, Power-to-X technology and energy islands. Julia Kirch Kirkegaard is Full Professor of Social Studies of Energy and focusses particularly on energy transition controversies.