The Role of Borders in Energy Dispositives – The Socio-materiality of Polish-German Energy Borderlands

In response to the polycrises that states have had to overcome in recent years, there has been an increase in national solo efforts. Despite narratives such as European energy solidarity and initiatives such as the European Green Deal, implementing promising approaches, especially since the Russian war against Ukraine, is not an easy task. While research has examined both energy transitions and the complex role of borders, less attention has been paid to how borders participate in the constitution and transformation of energy configurations. This article addresses this gap by conceptualizing energy transitions through the notion of energy dispositives: heterogeneous configurations of socio-material infrastructures, regulatory and strategic arrangements, discourses, and imaginaries through which particular energy futures are stabilized and contested. Drawing on the Energy Borderlands research project, we compare two energy dispositives in the German-Polish borderland: an established fossil and nuclear fuels dispositive, strongly associated with national strategies and imaginaries, and an emerging renewables dispositive, including cross-border initiatives such as district heating networks between twin cities. The analysis shows that the two dispositives do not simply replace one another but coexist and interact through overlapping spatial and temporal configurations. While the border contributes to the territorialization and stabilization of established fossil and nuclear energy configurations, it can facilitate new forms of cross-border cooperation within the renewables dispositive.