Spatial justice and the land politics of renewables: Dispossessing vulnerable communities through solar energy mega-projects

By Komali Yenneti, Rosie Day, O. Golubchikov. 2016

332 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper considers aspects of spatial justice in the processes of land acquisition for large-scale solar energy projects in the developmentalist context of India. It explores the case of one of the world’s largest solar park projects in Charanka, Gujarat. While the official rhetoric suggests an inclusive project for globally benign renewable energy production, the research reveals a more controversial land and power politics of renewable energy. It is argued, in particular, that the project increases the precariousness of vulnerable communities, who are exposed to the loss of livelihoods due to the enclosure of common land and extra-legal mechanisms through which land acquisitions for the project have reportedly taken place. This case exemplifies how solar mega-projects may manifest a regime of accumulation whereby low-carbon coalitions of interests can maximize their gains by dispossessing vulnerable social groups of their life-sustaining assets.

Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Political Science and International Relations, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3b6d389012f0dd554a719305000d81cb77380a92

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Political Science and International Relations

In Pollution

Citations in the corpus

Volatile Photovoltaics: Green Industrialization, Sacrifice Zones, and the Political Ecology of Solar Energy in Germany (2021, background): “Looking at the siting and land politics of solar energy parks in India, Yenneti and Day (2015, 2016) and Yenneti, Day, and Golubchikov (2016) revealed injustices of process, planning, and misrecognition in how such facilities are sited regardless of community concerns.”
Intersectionality and energy transitions: A review of gender, social equity and low-carbon energy (2020, background): “[83,126], biofuel plantations [84,87,88,90,92,95], and wind power developments [79,111].”
New frontiers and conceptual frameworks for energy justice (2017, background): “There, solar energy has only created “a regime of accumulation” whereby “low-carbon coalitions of interests can maximize their gains by dispossessing vulnerable social groups of their life-sustaining assets” (Yenneti et al. 2016).”
Temporality, vulnerability, and energy justice in household low carbon innovations (2019, background): “Solar energy parks in India have similarly sought to enhance availability of energy and sustainability, but done so through exclusion, land grabbing, and elitism (Yenneti et al., 2016).”
On the History and Future of 100% Renewable Energy Systems Research (2022, background): “India, injustices of process, planning, and misrecognition in how such facilities are sited regardless of community concerns are widespread [343]–[345].”
A Comprehensive Review on Renewable Energy Development, Challenges, and Policies of Leading Indian States With an International Perspective (2020, background): “The park is presented as a contemporary and environmental-friendly plan by the Confederation of Indian Industry [105].”
Spatializing energy justice (2017, background): “…conceptualizations of energy justice – for example, Jenkins et al. (2016) suggest that distributive justice refers to ‘where’ benefits and burdens are distributed through societies – to date only Yenneti et al. (2016) have explicitly utilized theorizations of spatial justice in an energy context.”