Electric consumption worldwide is projected to sharply increase in the coming decades, driven by population growth and the electrification of more and more human activities, like transportation, communication, industry, and housing. Electricity is thus becoming central to modern society. Most optimistic forecasts suggest that, by 2050, production will be primarily based on renewable energy sources, with the aim of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The construction of the necessary infrastructure for this energy transition,
such as solar and wind farms, is shaping significant economic, political, and social transformations, while also deeply influencing landscape quality and territorial configuration. Natural resources like the sun or wind do not recognize political borders, historical boundaries of regions or countries. On the contrary, they introduce a new dimension of a continuous, anonymous
geography that blurs the conventional concept of borders. One of the aspects generally emphasised with the installation of solar and wind farms concerns their visual impact, and are emblematic of problems associated with the construction of extensive power plants in natural landscapes. Their construction consumes hundreds of hectares of land and significantly alters the skyline. However, these concerns seem to overshadow a more significant issue: the homogenization of territories as they repeat a single solution across the globe, even when the conditions of the sites are completely different. The technical design is an oversimplification of the problem, resulting in a single technology that is designed and implemented to varied scenarios without adapting to local conditions. The system components of this infrastructure are few in number and completely disregard the previous configuration of the territory and the problems traditionally associated with architecture. The built infrastructure of these plants severs any connection with the landscape and memory, it is devoid of any sense of place that evolved in response to historical development and the particular local idiosyncrasies. Traditional constructions, regardless of their technological development, were based on local techniques and materials, evolving with accrued intergenerational experience, with mutual their territory, technology, and architecture were intrinsically. The new renewable energy infrastructure also represents an unprecedented global imposition without the consensus of the local population, rapidly altering the territory’s configuration in just a few years. This imposition also causes a significant transformation of the traditional concept of borders, “lines” that separate tradition, language, or architectural
resolution. In this sense, areas hosting these massive infrastructure often transition from productive tissues of the primary sector at the local level —mainly livestock and agriculture— to predominantly industrial ones that function on a global scale. However, these facilities rarely benefit the local population, as the energy produced is usually consumed hundreds of kilometres away. Furthermore, they operate autonomously, without labour, and are owned by large energy corporations, resulting in the distribution of profits among a few hands far away from the affected territories. These
corporations are thus building a geography that is drastically different from what the first power plants of rudimentary technology could create. The new renewable facilities disregard the historical, cultural, social, economic, political, and architectural values rooted in the territory, solely to harness wind and solar energy as inexhaustible natural resources in electricity generation. The global implementation of these plants evokes a sense of loss, as it destroys the previous state formed over centuries. However, their construction offers a valuable opportunity to begin imagining the present transformation of the territory by adopting a multidisciplinary approach. The problem posed by these facilities, as we will see, transcends mere technological development and the foreseeable increase in consumption of resources as the only possible paths to progress. The terms “renewable” and “borders” precisely invite to incorporate other dimensions and disciplines to address this issue in a renewed and cross-cutting manner, forming a complex network through the knowledge provided by politics, landscape, history, art, and architecture. This publication, prepared on the occasion of the international
workshop Renewable Borders —held in the German city of Chemnitz in October 2023— aims to offer different approaches to the problem of new renewable facilities and their relationship with border configurations. Can we still consider them as immutable lines destined to endure? How does energy production influence the evolution of these limits? What lexicon do we use to define it? In what ways can we represent them? Far from offering concrete answers, the six essays compiled in this publication pose new questions in an open and exploratory manner, uncovering a new field of inquiry that needs renewed thinking beyond the confines of borders.:10 Beyond borders
Carlos Gonzalvo and Julia Capomaggi
14 Frivolous energies
Alex Nathanson
18 Critical borders
Jakob Kullik
22 Renewable surfaces
Julia Capomaggi
40 Energy production in the cityscape
Dorota Gawryluk and Dorota Anna Krawczyk
44 Heritage and power
Marco Acri
46 Renewable lexicon
51 Students
52 Biographies
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:92117 |
| Date | 02 August 2024 |
| Creators | Nathanson, Alex, Kullik, Jakob, Capomaggi, Julia, Gawryluk, Dorota, Krawczy, Dorota Anna, Acri, Marco |
| Contributors | Gonzalvo, Carlos, Capomaggi, Julia, Korn, Ariane, University of Girona, Chemnitz University of Technology |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:book, info:eu-repo/semantics/book, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 978-84-09-61419-6 |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds