Distributed renewables and the rescaling of power in Australia
Renewable distributed energy technologies such as rooftop solar and household batteries appear to be rescaling and decentralising Australia’s energy system. These technologies carry the multiple promises of clean, resilient and independent energy supply in the face of extreme weather-related grid outages, the urgency of decarbonisation and rising electricity prices. Analysing household and expert interviews, I examine the ideas about scale that mediate engagement with the range of infrastructural configurations in which these technologies may feature, which includes off-grid homes and community microgrids. I build on relational and post-structuralist approaches to scale in human geography and related disciplines to draw attention to the ways that these configurations, through the deployment of scalar logics such as economies of scale, may come to align with remarkably diverse social and political projects.
Sophie Adams is a human geographer and Science and Technology Studies scholar based in the Climate Change Adaptation Lab at La Trobe University, and is interested in how knowledge about climate change is produced and goes on to shape societal responses. Her current research is on the transition underway in the energy system to decarbonise and adapt to the impacts of climate change, with a focus on the ways that competing objectives and implications for society are being negotiated through system modelling and planning processes.
Event Details
Date:
17 August 2026 at 12:00 pm
–
1:30 pm
Venue:
Campus:
Open to:
Cost:
Categories:
Description
Distributed renewables and the rescaling of power in Australia
Renewable distributed energy technologies such as rooftop solar and household batteries appear to be rescaling and decentralising Australia’s energy system. These technologies carry the multiple promises of clean, resilient and independent energy supply in the face of extreme weather-related grid outages, the urgency of decarbonisation and rising electricity prices. Analysing household and expert interviews, I examine the ideas about scale that mediate engagement with the range of infrastructural configurations in which these technologies may feature, which includes off-grid homes and community microgrids. I build on relational and post-structuralist approaches to scale in human geography and related disciplines to draw attention to the ways that these configurations, through the deployment of scalar logics such as economies of scale, may come to align with remarkably diverse social and political projects.
Sophie Adams is a human geographer and Science and Technology Studies scholar based in the Climate Change Adaptation Lab at La Trobe University, and is interested in how knowledge about climate change is produced and goes on to shape societal responses. Her current research is on the transition underway in the energy system to decarbonise and adapt to the impacts of climate change, with a focus on the ways that competing objectives and implications for society are being negotiated through system modelling and planning processes.
