Wind energy counter-conducts in Germany: understanding a new wave of socio-environmental grassroots protest

ABSTRACT

The rapid expansion of wind farms in Germany has spurred debate over the environmental impacts of the Energiewende, the country’s plan to transition towards renewable energy sources. We explore the opposition to two wind farms in central Germany by local civil initiatives through the Foucauldian notion of counter-conducts and a related Analytics of Protest Framework. Employing qualitative interpretive research methods, including 27 semi-structured interviews, we examine how wind energy critics navigate practices and rationalities governing wind energy expansion in the context of the Energiewende. We argue that critics challenge imperatives of environmental protection and energy justice, while at the same time reinforcing them. Struggles over wind energy manifest as struggles over the legitimate object of environmental protection and the ethical constitution of an environmental subject. Landscapes, both as habitats and scenery, gain impetus as the central tenet in the ecological agenda of wind energy opponents.

KEYWORDS:

• Renewable energy
• energy transition
• governmentality
• environmental subjects
• resistance
• wind energy

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the individuals who kindly agreed to participate in interviews for this study. This article is part of a PhD project, funded through a scholarship as per the Baden-Württemberg State Law on Graduate Funding (LGFG). The first author also wishes to thank the Eva-Mayr-Stihl Foundation for a travel grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Kuhn and Klingholz (2013, p. 3) make one mention of ‘non-equivalence’ in the foreword of this publication when they suggest that it ‘[…] must become part of political planning’ to respond to resource scarcity and a rapidly growing ‘disparity between regions with respect to population density, accessibility and public service provision’.