Idealizing energy democracy in the European semi-periphery: lithium mining, solar energy and fiction

Abstract Background The EU Green Deal aims to turn Europe into the first carbon neutral continent by 2050. However, criticisms of the hegemonic versions of this energy transition have focused on the top-down, asymmetric and corporate dimensions that often view local communities as barriers to the swift implementation of renewable energy infrastructures. Indeed, current scholarship argues that the energy transition is only maximizing the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism as the rapid rollout of green technologies increases North/South asymmetries, thereby fostering capital accumulation, green grabbing and ecocide. Research findings have furthermore argued that semi-peripheral countries such as Portugal are disproportionately affected by these negative impacts of the EU Green Deal. This paper explores two of the leading environmental controversies in the Portuguese context stemming directly from the prevailing energy transition – lithium mining in northern Portugal and plans to construct a large solar power plant in the Alentejo. Results The controversial lithium mining and solar energy projects prioritise corporate ownership, the centralization of renewable energy production, the marginalization of local communities as well as producing large green sacrifice zones and raising issues around energy democracy. This paper explores the role of fiction in the idealization of counter-hegemonic alternatives to the energy transition in keeping with the energy democracy theoretical framework. Highlighting some of the main principles of energy democracy – such as democratic control over energy systems, the redistribution of political-economic power, the universal right to renewable energy and social justice – this article puts forward a fictional scenario, set in 2035, in an ecovillage in Central Portugal. Through exploring the ways in which this fictional community put its own energy transition into practice, the paper sketches a speculative future aligned with the theoretical and sociopolitical concerns around energy democracy. Conclusion Our research suggests fiction might support the imagination of utopian versions of energy futures, articulating energy democracy principles with specific sociotechnical endeavours, problematizing the climate realism underpinning the predominant energy transitions. In this sense, fiction may play an important role in idealizing democratic energy transitions, combining the “what if” of socio-literary techniques with the normative demands and contradictions of low-carbon futures.