Abstract
This paper seeks to make a contribution to on-going debates about how to conceptualise the spatial processes of renewable energy transition. It makes a case for understanding renewable energy transitions as simultaneously spatial and political processes, constitutive of new territories and configuring development pathways. Drawing on a case study of South Africa's Renewable Energy Independent Power Procurement Programme (REI4P), the paper explores the ways in which energy transitions are intrinsically bound up with both the materiality and the historical and contemporary politics of land. It then examines the relationship between energy transitions and territory to conceptualise the ways in which transitions take on an experimental shape in the form of 'zones'. The paper argues that these zones are new territories deploying forms of spatial and political-administrative exceptionality, which allow political and economic actors to exercise authority and commercial power. Two types of zone emerging from South Africa's energy transition exemplify these processes: legally-defined zones for the development of solar and wind energy and zones of socioeconomic development required by REI4P. The paper explores the spatial and political consequences of these strategies and suggests that these may not necessarily translate into conflict and confrontation, but instead produce uneasy co-existences of different political, social and spatial projects and interests, with potential to create new polities.
Highlights
There is a long and rich history of engagement by geographers with energy, but until recently, the importance of geographical approaches to understanding renewable energy transitions has been largely neglected
The following discussion draws on the concepts of the zone and extrastatecraft to explore the ways in which renewable energy transitions take on an experimental shape, deploying forms of spatial and politicaladministrative exceptionality, which in South Africa are generating very specific political and developmental outcomes
In the context of a just energy transition in South Africa, it will be important for REI4P to avoid creating outcomes like those in extractive industries, where similar social processes and profound transformations have opened ‘social risks’ to the industrial operation, which have required corporations to direct resources towards highly conservative forms of community development (Banks et al 2013) e support for law and order, forms of social technology and paternalistic forms of trusteeship e that remain wilfully detached from political processes within communities
Summary
There is a long and rich history of engagement by geographers with energy (see Calvert, 2015), but until recently, the importance of geographical approaches to understanding renewable energy transitions has been largely neglected. The paper first explores the importance of acknowledging the ways in which energy transitions are intrinsically bound up with both the materiality and the historical and contemporary politics of land It develops the notion of energy transitions as a form of territoriality (Bridge et al 2013) to conceptualise the ways in which they take on an experimental shape, deploying forms of spatial and political-administrative exceptionality e ‘zones’ e that allow political and economic actors to exercise authority and commercial power. It explores the unintended spatial and political consequences of these strategies, reflecting on the kinds of polities that are emerging and could emerge within these spaces. It draws some tentative conclusions about the broader significance of understanding renewable energy transitions as simultaneously spatial and political processes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
