Energy Resource as Proposition: Making Green Hydrogen with the Energy Island"

Description

This paper examines the conceptual making of green hydrogen as an energy resource in relation to the projected design of the energy island. Announced by the Danish government in a 2020 climate agreement, the energy island (energiø) will be an offshore power hub in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, consolidating electricity from wind farms, converting it into green hydrogen through electrolysis (Power-to-X), and distributing it via national grids. Energy islands are conceived as all-in-one solutions that propose a modernist dream of connectedness, flexibility and calculability, envision smooth production and supply chain security as part of environmental design, and allow for future extensions if new technology becomes market-ready, e.g., solar, wave and tidal energy. This paper analyzes how green hydrogen is being constructed as an energy resource through the discursive and material framing of the energy island as a propositional reality. The lingering potential to produce green hydrogen offshore, distribute it transnationally, and reconvert it into electricity when and where needed (though with considerable loss) obscures the question whether such a development is desirable or just. Instead, as we argue, plans for the energy island are driven by the urgent desire to find a technological fix to both the energy crisis and the growing demand for energy security.

Period	30 Oct 2024
Event title	"Social studies of Energy and the Making and Unmaking of Energy Resources"
Event type	Conference
Location	Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International