Abstract
Transition to a sustainable energy regime is one of the key global societal challenges for the coming decades. Many technological innovations are in the pipeline, but an uncritical appraisal of anything and everything called green innovation lacks methods for testing both the necessity and the sufficiency of these developments. We propose to develop a philosophy of energy to fill this lacuna. Its task is to explore and clarify the space in which the so-called energy transition is taking place. This article sketches the fundaments of such a philosophy and suggests how it might be built upon the work of twentieth century critics of the functioning of energy in society, including Mumford, Bataille, and Heidegger; but not without empirical analysis of contemporary energy systems. Via the example of flux and potentiality - two apparently opposing conceptions of energy - we propose that a philosophy of energy allows for a broader perspective on specific problems in energy transition, and illuminates implicit and problematic assumptions behind these problems.
Highlights
The functioning of Western society is currently vitally dependent on the combustion of fossil fuels for energy
More fundamental questions emerge: can ever-expanding energy consumption be sustainable? To what extent is current consumption merely a result of the structure of energy supply rather than the fulfillment of human needs or wants? What exactly are these human needs for which the energy system should provide? As already noted in the works of Mumford, Bataille, and Heidegger, these questions have no easy answer, but it is obvious that they need considering should energy transition prove able to provide us with energy for generations to come
We argue in favor of establishing a philosophy of energy to deal with developments in what is known broadly as the energy transition
Summary
The functioning of Western society is currently vitally dependent on the combustion of fossil fuels for energy. In the case of the airline ground vehicles for example, one could claim that the focus on renewable energy for ground vehicles serves only to deflect attention from the much larger energy consumption of the airplanes that these companies operate This strategy is limited in scope: whilst raising questions on what we understand as proper green technologies, the approach does not prove appropriate to answering those questions. Anthropological accounts, for example, describe how electrification shapes life in remote villages, sociology and science and technology in society (STS hereafter) scholars research how the location of wind farms is negotiated among stakeholders, thereby pointing to novel dimensions to the energy transition problem This approach tends to focus on all that is left out of the technologist cost– benefit analysis. The article concludes with an example of the kind of issue susceptible to better understanding via our approach
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