Sustainable Energy Transformations, Power and Politics

Sharlissa Moore is an Assistant Professor of International Energy Policy, jointly appointed between the International Relations fields in James Madison College and the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Michigan State University, USA.

"Sharlissa Moore’s highly readable account of renewable energy transformations at the intersection of Europe and North Africa provides new insights into this rapidly changing and resource-rich region. Equally important, it synthesizes the very latest in multidisciplinary approaches to energy transitions within the complex socio-technical systems that surround and enable our lives."-- Adam Reed, Education Director, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, USA"Many turn to renewable energy because of climate change and other reasons. Energy, however, is more than clever engineering. Politics, economics, ethics, and justice interweave with technology—locally, nationally, and internationally. Concentrating solar power projects to produce electricity in Morocco illustrate these challenges in this path-breaking analysis, a must read." -- John H Perkins, Member of the Faculty Emeritus, The Evergreen State College, USA"In an engaging narrative style, Moore has created an important sociotechnical study of Morocco’s push for renewable energy, dispelling for once the notion that energy is just about science and technology. This rich case study provides insights into issues of power and justice relevant for other regions of the world." -- Mary Jane Parmentier, Clinical Associate Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University, USA"Sharlissa Moore skillfully shows how the imbalances of power in the formation of a collective vision of energy systems stubbornly replicate themselves as imagination turns into design, implementation and social outcomes. An important contribution to the scholarship of Science and Technology Studies and essential reading for everyone involved in managing and shaping energy systems. This study, empirically centered in Morocco, offers a more general lesson: that sustainability is not merely determined by technological possibility or the economics of energy production, but also by more subtle forces such as those determining whose voice is amplified or muted when we imagine our shared energy future." -- Walter D. Valdivia, George Mason University, USA

• List of figuresList of tablesAcknowledgementsList of abbreviationsPART ILarge-scale energy system transformations Introduction: Visions for sustainable energy transformations The history of concentrating solar power and large-scale engineering projects for the Mediterranean The critical geopolitics of renewable energy and spatial energy justice: Envisioning the Mediterranean, perceiving Desertec The life cycle of a vision: Desertec system designs PART IINation-state visions for just and socially sustainable energy development The social pillar of sustainable development in Morocco’s solar imaginary Neocolonial or not? Evaluating North-South-South partnership on electricity integration Socially sustainable solar power development: From national dreams to local outcomes Conclusion: Energy justice and security in visions of multi-scalar systems Index