Student Publications

Making the energy connection: A review of the geographies of high-voltage transmission

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Energy is a resurgent topic in geography and cognate fields, but its theoretical development and empirical exploration have been uneven. I argue that centering transmission as an analytical lens — rather than treat ing it as incidental to extraction, generation, and consumption — brings the multi-scalar spatial politics of energy systems into the foreground through attention to circulation. This article reviews work on trans mission from energy geographies, science and technology studies, and the histories of energy, technology, and the environment, identifying four main themes. First, transmission is used as a lens to examine larger energy metabolisms and how the circulation of electricity entrenches spatial relations. Second, transmis sion is an instrument of state territorialization, both within and across borders. Third, transmission, as a particular form of electricity capital, is subject to specific regimes of accumulation and regulation. Finally, transmission lines can become objects of social contestation that entangle multi-scalar politics of energy transition, electrification, and development. The article concludes by identifying areas for further research —empirical, theoretical, and policy-oriented — through which scholarly attention to transmission can inform energy geographies, energy studies, and human-environment geography more broadly.

Publication Title

Progress in Environmental Geography

Publication Date

2024

Volume

3

Issue

4

First Page

311

Last Page

331

ISSN

2753-9687

DOI

10.1177/27539687241290822

Keywords

energy geographies, just energy transitions, infrastructure, electricity capital, transmission, circulation

Cross Post Location

Student Publications

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