Presentation short abstract

This paper ethnographically explores Kenyan geothermal energy futures. From their training grounds in Iceland to their work places, Kenyan engineers are entangled between global demands for low-carbon energy, systemic constraints, and the ghostly presence of the local futures they set out to build.

Presentation long abstract

This paper ethnographically explores how Kenyan engineers are tormented by uncertain and competing energy futures. Trained in Iceland and working in Kenya’s geothermal fields, these engineers navigate landscapes shaped by both geologic activity and powerful imaginaries of the past and future. Bubbling mud pools and rising vapour have long been associated with ghostly presences, from trolls in Iceland to warrior spirits in Kenya’s Menengai Crater. Yet these haunted landscapes also represent modernity, as their subsurface heat promises stable, green electricity. As Europe turns to Africa for green hydrogen and other renewable energy solutions, geothermal exploitation becomes part of a global scramble for resources framed as climate action. Kenyan engineers are key actors in realising these energy futures. Inspired by Icelandic models, they return home highly motivated but often encounter stalled projects, bureaucratic barriers, and frustrations when their adapted ideas remain unrealized. Feeling haunted by their own sociotechnical visions, some take action in their spare time, pursuing their ideals by helping rural communities use geothermal heat directly. But what happens when the just futures the engineers imagine threaten to become yet another extractive reality? Like the landscapes they work in, engineers are haunted by spirits of the past and by imaginaries of the very futures they set out to build.