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

Project description

The importance of examining how energy transitions are valued

Europe's pursuit of renewable energy is challenged by a surge in local resistance that threatens to impede the transition away from fossil fuels. Conventional energy planning, dominated by expert-driven design tools, has inadvertently fuelled opposition during project development. In this context, the ERC-funded Good-by-Devicing project aims to redefine this paradigm by addressing social concerns early in the design phase, offering a new approach to expediting the deployment of renewable energy while encompassing societal values. Rather than addressing opposition in the later stages, this innovative initiative delves into the design phase. By examining the contested development of ‘energy islands’ in Denmark, particularly Bornholm, the project aims to reshape the valuation of the energy transition.

Objective

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. 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, and procurement schemes. These devices incorporate expert decisions on what concerns to include and exclude in the design of the energy transition. 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. 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. 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, contributing to the Social Acceptance literature, as well as to Valuation Studies and its new notion of the good economy, exploring how the good fossil-free society could be re-devised to account for social concerns, thereby reducing conflict.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

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Host institution

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution
€ 1 475 751,00
Address
ANKER ENGELUNDS VEJ 101
2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark
Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Københavns omegn
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 475 751,00

Beneficiaries (2)