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SUMMARY:'Black coal is capital\, white coal is revenue': French hydropower
  and the idea of renewable energy\, 1889-1919 - Tobias Silseth (University
  of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20240206T170000Z
DTEND:20240206T180000Z
UID:TALK209641@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr AM Price
DESCRIPTION:The transition from an energy system based on fossil fuels to 
 one based on renewable energy has become an important notion in current de
 bates on tackling anthropogenic climate change. This image of a fossil-fue
 lled past and a future of renewables does not only go back to the 1970s\, 
 when the term ‘renewable energy’ came into widespread use. In fact\, t
 he hope of a future energy economy based on electricity generated from ren
 ewables already existed in the late 1800s. One of the key niches for artic
 ulating this hope was the group of French engineers and businessmen that d
 eveloped and promoted hydroelectric power\, often referred to as ‘white 
 coal’. Through journals like _La Houille blanche_\, they emphasised that
  white coal was renewed over time while black coal was depleted\, and they
  argued this point by applying economic categories like capital\, revenue\
 , inheritance\, and amortisation to emerging technical systems. \n\nUsing 
 economic categories to conceptualise different energy sources\, French hyd
 ropower proponents were extending the work of earlier pioneers in thermody
 namics. The application of such categories was therefore transnational and
  interdisciplinary. In the context of French hydropower development\, howe
 ver\, such terms took on a new importance before the First World War. Advo
 cates of hydroelectric power associated the new energy source with good ec
 onomic management. With the new imperatives introduced by the war\, the ar
 gument that white coal might replace black coal gave way to a vision that 
 emphasised the need for both energy sources.\n\nFrench hydropower boosters
  went from arguing that white coal might lead to a renewable energy future
  to arguing that coal and hydropower were both necessary for a sound energ
 y economy. This shift in strategy shows both that\, through economic categ
 ories\, there was a clear distinction between renewable and nonrenewable e
 nergy sources\, and that the vision of an accelerating shift to renewable 
 energy before the First World War in most cases did not survive the exigen
 cies of global conflict. \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 3\, Cripps Court\, Magdalene College
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