Contribution short abstract:

This paper examines Iceland’s and Kenya’s renewable energy landscapes, focusing on tensions between local empowerment and global market priorities. It highlights dynamics of un/commoning, exploring whether these cases represent green sacrifice zones or sustainable energy landscapes of value.

Contribution long abstract:

Renewable energy landscapes are emerging as sites of complex negotiations between local needs and global demands. This paper examines two contrasting cases, Iceland and Kenya, to explore how energy resources are appropriated, distributed, and contested within different socio-political contexts.

In Iceland, 80% of electricity generated from renewable sources powers aluminum smelters, prioritizing industrial production over local consumption. This dynamic highlights the export-driven model of resource utilization, where economic imperatives overshadow communal benefits. Moreover, Icelandic aluminum production raises environmental concerns, since it can be cheaper than recycling the metal. In Kenya, geothermal energy development is heralded as a driver of national electrification and socio-economic progress. Yet, plans to establish data centers and export green electricity as hydrogen to industrialized nations like Germany reveal similar tensions. Interviews with Kenyan geothermal professionals expose competing narratives—one emphasizing local empowerment and another shaped by global market logics.

The analysis focuses on the un/commoning of renewable energy landscapes in these contexts, addressing two core questions: How are renewable resources managed to balance local and global interests? And should the two distinct yet parallel cases be understood as green sacrifice zones or as energy landscapes of value, reflecting competing logics of extraction and communal benefit? By diving into these cases, this paper contributes to understanding the socio-political dimensions of renewable energy transitions. It highlights the need for equitable frameworks that prioritize sustainable benefits for local populations while interrogating the global pressures shaping energy landscapes in the Global North and South.