European island imaginaries: Examining the actors, innovations, and renewable energy transitions of 8 islands

Islands have become important elements in socio-technical imaginaries of European energy transitions. Here, large, centralized energy production facilities are gradually being replaced with distributed, heterogeneous, multidirectional and smart energy systems. Islands often serve as test beds for such technologies, where new configurations are tested in pilot and demonstration projects. Actors such as the European Commission, research and innovation actors, as well as industrial actors have identified islands as key energy transition sites, in part because islands are imagined to be characterized by a set of distinct material and social traits that distinguishes them from mainland spaces that are generative to and lend credibility to innovation activities. Such accounts of islandness can be seen in European policy documents, in material from specific research and innovation projects, and in work conducted on islands such as Hvaler in Norway. Citizens living on islands also gain different experiences with electricity grids than mainland citizens, thereby rendering the electricity grid an actionable political object. While the ethos of localized projects often rests heavily on assumptions of islands as unique places, the same projects often highlight the generalizability of technological lessons learned from such test beds, and the potential for scaling tested solutions up in other sites. When working to do so, actors promoting smart energy transitions should work more actively to anchor initiatives in local concerns and localized issues.