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Paper short abstract

This paper tracks a ‘worth expansion’: an increase in justifications of energy islands from being green to also enhancing competitiveness and ensuring energy independence. This process may revert to a ‘worth contraction’ in which a singular focus on independence leads to a revaluing of, e.g., coal.

Paper long abstract

In 2019, the Danish government proposed the world's first 'energy island' to connect gigawatts of offshore wind power with the aim of decarbonizing the energy system. By 2026, an agreement was reached, with the Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities highlighting its role in creating a "safer and more competitive Europe in a time of geopolitical challenges"

We seek to explore this apparent modification of the justifications of energy islands. In doing so, we engage with the notion of the 'good economy', i.e., “value creation that encapsulates the good, and the sustainable too.” (Asdal 2022: 851). We thus trace how energy islands were initially justified (Boltanski & Thévenot 2006) for their sustainability. In recent years, more justifications have been included to maintain the relevance of energy islands. We call this process ‘worth expansion’ and highlight how contributions to competitiveness, resilience, energy security, and independence have been added to the justifications of energy islands. However, this strategy of expanding the kinds of worth ascribed to energy islands may inadvertently modify the issue at stake (cf. Asdal 2015) from matters of sustainability to matters of security of supply. We analyze how the focus on energy independence has reinvigorated energy sources which had previously been branded as worthless: Nuclear and coal. We call this process of re-focusing on a single issue ‘worth contraction’.

Based on the description of this justificatory shift from sustainability to geopolitics, we ask if energy islands still constitute a ‘good economy’ or if a different value economy is emerging.