The Territories of Coal-Fired Power Plants as Sites for the Reconfiguration of Production Systems: Thoughts on a Meso-Scale of the Energy Transition

Acknowledged as one of the major societal challenges of this century, the energy transition opens the debate on different models for the spatial and political organisation of energy systems. In France, we tend to find a discursive ambivalence in political arguments opposing two development models: one conveying a ‘techno-managerial’ vision promoting technological innovations, the maintenance of existing networks and strong State interventionism, the other a ‘radical eco-centric’ vision favouring major social, cultural and political transformations in rupture with the dominant system. This duality is echoed in French scientific work, which often opposes production modes (centralised or decentralised), forms of governance (monopolistic or shared) or exploited resources (fossil or renewable). In light of this theoretical binarity, this article explores the possibility of intermediate forms of reconfiguration of energy production systems. Based on a review of the French-language scientific literature and empirical observations on the territories of French coal-fired power plants, we propose nine indicators to identify and characterise some ongoing transformations. Two main observations can be made: first, we are seeing the emergence of territorial energy clusters, and secondly, this new geographical object is being spatialised on a meso-scale.