Turning sunlit rooftops and windy sites into energy assets  - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Turning sunlit rooftops and windy sites into energy assets 

Résumé

At the core of renewable energy project development is the work of turning things (roof, site) into productive assets (solar roof, wind power site) through the siting of material devices (turbines, PV panels). The resulting assets convert an untamed flow (sun, wind) into electricity dubbed ‘renewable’ and eligible to stable remuneration (‘feed-in’ tariff). They are valued (tradable projects/portfolios) and they produce value (marketable electricity). Assembling productive-enough assets implies engaging things in hybrid agencements by requalifying their pre-existing usages and/or users. Our contribution starts from two case studies of politically engaged project developments: a mutualised PV project carried out by farmers (Fermes de Figeac, Lot, France), and a wind farm repowering in a European migratory corridor involving bird watchers and a wind power developers (Narbonnaise, Languedoc-Roussillon, France). These cases allow us to describe the socio-technical and economic reconfigurations through which sunlit rooftops and a windy site are turned into assets, and made to generate revenue streams. We further look at what these reconfigurations produce, which allows us to discuss the forms of rentierships entailed and the way in which we define assets. As these processes take place at the junction with financial valuation, conveyed by developers business models (project/portfolio TRIs, relation with banks), they additionally make the case for discussing the relation between capitalisation (TRI requirements) and asset making.

Domaines

Sociologie
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

halshs-01419733 , version 1 (19-12-2016)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-01419733 , version 1

Citer

Alain Nadaï, Béatrice Cointe. Turning sunlit rooftops and windy sites into energy assets . “Turning Things into Assets” 2016 4S/EASST Conference, 4S/EASST Aug 2016, Barcelone France. ⟨halshs-01419733⟩
171 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More