On industrial pasts and futures: Imagining a large-scale battery industry in Norway

• A battery cell production plant is under construction in Arendal, southern Norway, raising expectations of a post-oil pathway to wealth, prosperity and employment. • Historical figures such as Sam Eyde and Arne Rettedal act as ‘moral exemplars’, revealing the values that Arendal's local actors consider desirable in terms of the emerging battery industry and its future. • This local imaginary could well end up playing a significant role in shaping a national vision that draws on various regional histories. • Eyde, Rettedal and the histories they represent contribute to the creation of the Norwegian sociotechnical imaginary of a ‘good’ battery industry based on collective endeavour and selflessness. Rising demand for electromobility and energy storage as a ‘green’ technological solution for low-carbon futures is driving large-scale battery manufacturing worldwide. Against this backdrop, Morrow Batteries is building a battery cell production plant in the Norwegian town of Arendal, raising expectations across the region and beyond of a post-oil pathway to wealth, prosperity and employment. Based on extensive ethnographic research, this article examines how local government and industry actors draw on industrial pasts and historical figures – specifically industrialist Sam Eyde and politician Arne Rettedal – when imagining what the battery industry might become. Here, the moral exemplarity of Eyde, Rettedal and the histories they represent offer a means of legitimising the Norwegian sociotechnical imaginary of a ‘good’ battery industry based on collective endeavour, selflessness and responsibility towards society.