Paper short abstract:

Exploring the palimpsest nature of energy developments in Orkney - the mutually shaping and reshaping histories of peat, uranium, oil, and renewables - this paper explores how older futures shape present landscapes as resources for pragmatic use, warning, and potentially hope.

Paper long abstract:

What does it mean when new energy developments stand in the footprints of previous visions of the future? Recognising the complex relationships between the renewables economy and histories of extraction in Scotland, this paper reflects on collaborative participatory research, along with subsequent oral history interviews and archival work, to explore on the social life of energy developments. The ethnographic focus will be the palimpsest nature of Orkney energy landscapes. Human use of peatlands has shaped the physical landscape, while the arrival of North Sea oil and the tensions following the discovery of economically viable Uranium deposits were defining events in the islands' political landscape. Today, Orkney plays a key role as a global centre of renewable energy invention and innovation in the face of an uncertain future. How do these histories contact and fold into one another? Making a case for the need to embed our understanding of energy generation in the context of long-term histories, we see how older futures shape present landscapes as resources for pragmatic use, warning, and potentially hope.