Renewing power Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology Roos, Andreas 2021 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Roos, A. (2021). Renewing power: Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology. Lund University. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 Renewing power Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology ANDREAS ROOS HUMAN ECOLOGY | FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES | LUND UNIVERSITY AN ECOLABEL 3041 0903 NORDIC SW SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) TECHNO- LOGY is rapidly emerging as a cost-effec- tive option in the world economy. Go- ryck, Lund 2021 vernments, corporations, and grassroots actors are promoting solar PV power in the hope of transforming the fossil-based energy regime and mitigating climate Printed by Media-T change. However, reports about misera- ble working conditions, environmentally deleterious mineral extraction, and toxic waste dumps corrode the image of a pro- blem-free future based on solar power. The research is contradictory and the environmental movement is di- vided. Meanwhile, few are asking fundamental questions about what solar PV technology is from the perspective of global inequalities and asymmetric resource flows. This thesis investigates the extent to which the detrimental global consequences of solar PV technology are con- tingent or inherent conditions for the technology itself. 957996 Faculty of Social Sciences Human Ecology Division 789178 ISBN 978-91-7895-799-6 9 Renewing power Renewing power Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology Andreas Roos DOCTORAL DISSERTATION by due permission of the Faculty Social Sciences, Lund University, Sweden. To be defended online on the 28th of April, 15.00 CET, 2021. Faculty opponent Langdon Winner Organization Document name Doctoral dissertation LUND UNIVERSITY Date of issue 30.03.2021 Author Andreas Roos Sponsoring organization N/A Title and subtitle Renewing power: Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology Abstract Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the most favored means of mitigating climate change. At the same time, there is a growing concern over how this technology is both environmentally harmful and unevenly distributed in the world economy. Researchers and environmentalists differ on whether a global relation of power is inherent in solar technology. This thesis investigates to what extent the global, social and material conditions of solar PV technology contrast with conventional conceptions of it. Building on insights from ecological economics and the philosophy of technology, it offers an interdisciplinary approach to solar PV technology. Its central question is whether ‘ecologically unequal exchange’ is a necessary condition for large-scale solar PV development. The theory of ecologically unequal exchange explains how wealthier nations rely on net imports of resources to sustain their levels of consumption and technological development, while displacing much of their work and environmental loads to poorer nations. This theory is tested in an LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange between Germany and China during the emergence of the global solar PV market (2002-2018). It is also tested through an application of the concept of ‘power density’ to four leading solar nation’s PV ambitions (China, Germany, India, Italy). The findings demonstrate how large-scale development of solar PV technology may require global asymmetries as much as polysilicon, electrical components, engineers, or direct sunshine. To the extent that decision- makers disregard this, it may be a symptom of ‘machine fetishism,’ which masks the global asymmetries of the emerging energy regime while also preventing us from grasping what modern technology ultimately is. Key words solar energy; photovoltaic technology; ecologically unequal exchange; philosophical materialism; social metabolism; political artifacts; authoritarian technics; machine fetishism; environmental justice; environmental sustainability Classification system and/or index terms (if any) Supplementary bibliographical information Language English ISSN and key title N/A ISBN (Print): 978-91-7895-799-6 ISBN (PDF): 978-91-7895-800-9 Recipient’s notes Number of pages 230 Price Security classification I, the undersigned, being the copyright owner of the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation, hereby grant to all reference sources permission to publish and disseminate the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation. Signature Date 16.03.2021 Renewing power Including global asymmetries within the system boundaries of solar photovoltaic technology Andreas Roos Coverphoto by Sonja Regårdh Copyright Andreas Roos Faculty of Social Sciences Human Ecology Division ISBN (Print) 978-91-7895-799-6 ISBN (PDF) 978-91-7895-800-9 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund 2021 This dread, this shadow of the mind must, thus be swept away Not by rays of the sun nor by the brilliant beams of day But by observing nature and her laws. And this will lay The warp out for us – her first principle: that nothing’s brought Forth by any supernatural power out of naught. Lucretius Table of contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... 11 1. Solar power at the brink: On the need to relate solar visions to reality ................................................ 13 The promising arguments for solar power: A contradictory vision ........... 16 With the world at stake: Renewables, ecomodernism, and ecorealism ..... 22 The structure and contents of this study .................................................... 27 A note on interdisciplinarity ...................................................................... 30 2. Earthing philosophy of technology: A methodological point of departure ......................................................... 33 Does nature matter? Materialism as recognition of nature ........................ 34 What is technology? A review of contemporary philosophy of technology as immaterial ...................................................................... 39 En route to a critical ecological philosophy of technology ....................... 51 The technological continuum: An illustrative model ................................ 61 3. The industrial regime as a historical parenthesis: The social-ecological context of solar PV technology and the question of the new metabolism .................................................... 67 The prerequisites of the Industrial Revolution: Colonialism, capitalism, and fossil fuels ........................................................................ 70 The consequences of the Industrial Revolution: Fossil dependency, world division of labor, ecological crisis, and modernity ......................... 80 The new metabolism: Continuing, transcending, or reversing the industrial regime? ............................................................ 91 4. From alternative technology to world commodity: Ecologically unequal exchange and the commercialization of solar PV technology 2002-2018 .............................................................. 97 The boom: An explosive dawn for commercial solar PV technology .... 100 Current explanations for the boom: An infatuation with immaterial factors .................................................... 106 Ecologically unequal exchange between Germany and China 2002-2018: Trading German PV manufacturing machines for Chinese solar PV modules ................................................................... 112 Was ecologically unequal exchange a necessity for solar PV commercialization? ............................................. 124 The solar boom: The vision and the reality ............................................. 131 5. The political ecology of the technological boundary: On the inherent politics of large-scale solar PV development ............... 133 The boundary debate in the study of energy return on energy investment (EROI) ........................................... 139 Power density extended: Calculating the necessary land for the solar aspirations of China, Germany, India, and Italy ...................................... 149 The political ecology of the technological boundary: The case of large-