Water as White Coal
The article tells the story of the rise and decline of the significance and visibility of “white coal” and hydroelectricity over the course of the twentieth century.
The article tells the story of the rise and decline of the significance and visibility of “white coal” and hydroelectricity over the course of the twentieth century.
This article considers the various factors that hindered intensification of industrial activity and retarded national economic growth. Eventually the pressure of social and cultural factors encouraged abandonment of the use of an abundant and relatively cheap resource—peat—and promoted the use of a scarcer and more expensive alternative—coal.
American knowledge of British coal practices had at least two crucial implications for the timing and shape of the nation’s first fossil fuel energy transition. This story suggests that attention to transnational contexts can help us better understand how, when, and why energy transitions occur.
Piper argues that coal has played an important role in Alberta’s history, although it receives less attention than the oil sands. Coal has been essential to Alberta’s economy and the industry has benefited from government support, although from the 1970s this came into conflict with growing grassroots environmentalism. Whether the coal industry can withstand recent political and economic changes, however, remains to be seen.
Odinn Melsted traces Reykjavík’s transition from coal to geothermal energy.
Sean Patrick Adams explores coal storage and expansion in nineteenth-century America.
This volume of Perspectives offers a collection of largely untold stories that demonstrate women’s agency in energy transitions.
Dolata brings to light how the conflicts faced by women has shaped their agency in energy transitions.
This volume of Perspectives offers case studies of energy transitions within everyday environments over the last two centuries, from Europe to South Asia, to North and Latin America.