Where the Wind Blows
Tracing Global Environmental Governance in Wind Energy Development in Denmark and Taiwan (1970s to the Present)
Time: Wed 2025-09-10 13.00
Location: F3, Lindstedtvägen 26 and 28, Campus, public video conference
Video link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/63206599616
Language: English
Subject area: History of Science, Technology and Environment
Doctoral student: Thomas Harbøll Schrøder , Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö, SPHERE
Opponent: Professor Matthias Heymann, Aarhus University
Supervisor: Sabine Höhler, Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö; Professor Sverker Sörlin, Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö
QC 20250822
Abstract
This thesis provides a sample of the history of modern wind energy by focusing on two small countries: Denmark and Taiwan. Denmark was a pioneer of wind energy. In the Asia Pacific region outside of China, Taiwan is a first mover in the area of offshore wind. This is a history that traces wind energy from Denmark to Taiwan. Despite the geographical distance, there is a strong link between the two countries as the Danish wind industry was crucial for enabling Taiwan’s offshore wind development. The history is also global because wind technology in both countries enabled and was enabled by a dramatic rise of this energy source around the world. The thesis examines the history of wind energy in the light of the history of global environmental governance. Wind energy and global environmental governance have formed more or less during the same time period, especially since the 1970s and have both, at least metaphorically, been dramatically more present in still more areas of social life and of the world since the 2000s. Wind energy has largely been driven forward as an environmentally friendly energy source. Because of decentral characteristics and independence from input of fuel, wind energy, however, has also been promoted as a way of electrifying the countryside, as local empowerment, as a way to national independence. The thesis consists of four articles. The first article focuses on the history of wind energy in Denmark since its rediscovery in the 1970s and 80s. The article argues that technological artefacts and particular forms of technological knowledge played a key role in Denmark’s pioneering of wind energy. The second article traces wind energy from Denmark to Taiwan. It shows that the sociotechnical imaginaries of wind energy have changed over time, and that this has been co-produced with the technological change that wind energy has undergone, political and social changes, and the entry of this technology in new places and contexts. The third article examines offshore wind energy’s meeting with the Taiwanese White Dolphin. This meeting brings a fragmentation within environmentalism to the surface and challenges wind energy’s green image. The fourth article examines the activities of the business initiative RE100 with a focus on offshore wind in Taiwan. It shows that previously unthinkable actors are promoting wind energy.