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To upscale & embed the energy transition we also need to develop a new common
exciting energy culture
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Our fossil fueled economy has brought our society many prosperity and improvements in our daily lives. But the abundance of carbon released through the processing of the energy flows has disrupted the carbon balance of the atmosphere. Our energy vectors need to be renewable energy based. To stop climate change - threatening our planet - we have to shift and partly re-draw our whole energy system, from production to end consumer. This transition is a huge challenge for us as a society, it needs the support from all actors involved from policy and industry to every energy consumer: meaning you and me.
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Our society has throughout history always been shaped by the energy supply. Be it fire pits in the first communities, coal-based city gas in cities, intensified agriculture, diesel cars or water dams. The production, transport, transformation and consumption of different forms of energy impacts our living environments and daily lifes. Even more the energy infrastructure has a whole might be one of the main driving forces of the way we life, eat or move our selves. The energy feed for our society has also coloured and manifested itself in our lifes in different ways: the typological identities that came with the impressive infrastructure, the solar panels in sub-urban neighbourhoods, car-sharing, the colour green, a decorative fire place, vegan food day or even post stamps and powerhouse headquarters.
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Because of the enormous impact of energy and the many differents ways it manifests itselves in our daily lives, I wanted to start an open and very personal research into what I would call 'Energy Culture'. To make the energy transition happen on this huge scale we are in need of a new energy culture. One that embraces a new image of our society, that is both trustworthy, catchy as sexy. And to develop a new image one must first understand the old and present one. And because of the vastness of this subject, the fact that it's both very technical and poetic I try many methods and formats in an open way. Through field work of photography, walking routes, company visits and research I try to grasp and develop this energy culture better. Through the tours, visits and talks I want to open up the understanding of what is energy culture, and connect it to different hard- and softcore topics. Shouldn't it all be more attractive and simply more fun? Because why wouldn't we make the energy transition sexy? This wildly unbiased or unstructured research tries to add a new little perspective on the global debate of our new renewable and circular future. The website tries to bring together this research in a dynamic way being updated regularly with new content.
In my daily life I work as an energy transition expert in an industrial context, focusing on the larger systemic issues and (intra)national policy but also on demonstration projects of new technologies. Driven by the belief we need to shift to a renewable energy based society and by the passion for energy in general. Next to that I also from time to time teach an urbanism design studio focussing on sustainable transition, spatial strategies, multi-stakeholders involvement and storytelling. Trained as an architect I shifted from first developing cultural contexts for ao. debate on a more sustainable and better future, towards the more hardcore work in a policy and industrial context. I enjoy different perspectives, to think and to work transdisciplinary, just to create better impact and have all sorts of stakeholders on board. Pushed forward by the drive to envision a better future, and trying to create first steps with differents actors. These different experiences have fed my interest in our energy culture, and the belief that we need to address this from many angles: the technical, spatial, social, cultural, etc. Therefore I started this personal project, and now finally dared to launch this wary online platform to share some bits and pieces. Happy to talk to you on projects, ideas or some far fetched day dreaming!
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Maxime Peeters
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