Materializing Renewable Capital

Project Information

MaRC

Grant agreement ID: 101064678

DOI

10.3030/101064678

Project closed

EC signature date 7 July 2022

Start date 15 August 2022

End date 14 October 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 222 727,68

Coordinated by

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MaRC (Materializing Renewable Capital)

Reporting period: 2022-08-15 to 2025-10-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Materializing Renewable Capital (MaRC) project explored one of the defining challenges of the 21st century: how to finance the global energy transition. Although renewable technologies are becoming cheaper, global investment in clean energy remains far below what is required to meet the Paris Agreement targets. The International Energy Agency estimates that nearly four trillion USD per year is needed by 2030—yet actual spending is only a fraction of that. MaRC asked why.

Starting from autumn 2022 at Uppsala University, the project examined how the materiality of renewable energy production—its physical, technical, and geological characteristics—shapes the mobilization of capital needed for transition. Drawing together insights from economic geography, political economy, and energy studies, the project analyzed how production processes, financial logics, and institutional expectations interact to make or constrain investment in renewables.

The overarching goal was to build a new understanding of how energy markets perform transitions—not as linear replacements of old systems, but as uneven, contested, and often contradictory processes in which fossil and renewable sectors coexist. This research directly supports the EU Green Deal’s aim to promote a fair, just, and evidence-based transformation of the energy system.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

From autumn 2022 to 2025, the MaRC project developed a political–economic framework explaining why capital formation for renewables lags behind technological progress. The research combined analysis of energy-agency and industry reports (IEA, OPEC, corporate filings), selective expert interviews, and comparative historical study of oil and gas markets to situate renewable investment within broader systems of energy finance. The project’s original focus on the materiality of production (minerals, batteries, large-scale generation) was integrated with analysis of financial logics and market performativity—how models, forecasts, and narratives shape investor behavior.

Main scientific results:

Energy performativity and institutions: The project demonstrates that projections by institutions like the IEA do not merely describe markets but perform them—shaping expectations, capital allocation, and climate policy. This concept of performing energy provides a new tool for studying the politics of transition uncertainty (peer-reviewed article, 2025).

Transition volatility: Synthesizing fossil and renewable evidence, the project theorizes structural volatility—instability produced within markets themselves by capital intensity, material constraints, and performative forecasting.

Integration: A monograph, Carbon Purgatory (Oxford, est. 2026), consolidates these findings into a framework describing the prolonged coexistence of hydrocarbons and renewables.

These outcomes offer a grounded explanation for why renewable-capital mobilization remains uneven and how institutional design and market coordination can mitigate volatility and accelerate transition investment.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Materializing Renewable Capital (MaRC) project advanced understanding of the global energy transition by linking three often separate domains: resource materiality, financial market behavior, and institutional performativity. It shows that the challenge of mobilizing renewable investment lies not only in costs or policy, but in how physical production constraints interact with financial imperatives for short-cycle, low-risk returns.

The project introduces the concept of “performing energy,” demonstrating how global institutions like the International Energy Agency shape—not just describe—energy futures through their forecasts. These performative effects influence capital allocation, policy debate, and public expectations, providing a new way to understand why transitions remain uneven.

Empirically, MaRC integrated archival research, industrial discourse analysis, elite interviews, and comparative studies of oil, gas, and renewables financial flows to identify shared drivers of structural volatility—a condition where instability and investment cycles are produced by market design itself.

The project’s ongoing papers deepen these results: one theorizes volatility as endogenous to transition markets; another calls for open, participatory forecasting to restore trust; and a third analyzes the political economy of battery-sector formation in Europe and North America.

These findings highlight key policy needs: greater transparency in energy modelling, state coordination to stabilize volatile investment cycles, and targeted support for critical-mineral and battery industries. Together, they provide conceptual and empirical tools to design a more resilient and equitable low-carbon transition.