Properties of air: Wind resourcification via assetization in the republic of Ireland
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The wind has profound cultural and economic value and plays an increasingly important role in today's economic system. Despite this, wind remains under-conceptualised as a resource in accounts of energy transition. This paper traces the resourcification of wind in the context of energy transition in the Republic of Ireland, analysing how the material properties of wind resources interact with the social property relations governing their integration into the economy. It does so by tracing the economic practices which ascribe value to the wind and integrate it into the system of commodity production, namely assetization by landowners in the form of rent payments. This is a key, and often overlooked, first step which precedes the conversion of wind resources into an electricity commodity by project developers. This assetization is composed of two moments: Firstly, the wind is treated as de facto private property through ‘proxy wind rights’ for landowners. Secondly, struggles over surplus value appropriation and distribution occur between landowners, developers and local communities. The outcomes of these two moments of wind assetization are unpacked. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for the relationship between agency and forms of rent, as well as the ‘world-making’ potential of concepts like ‘wind rights’ for prefigurative politics in energy transitions.
Author: Robert Wade
Institution: Eindhoven University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W4409397218