On industrial pasts and futures: Imagining a large-scale battery industry in Norway

Abstract

Rising demand for electromobility and energy storage as a ‘green’ technological solution for low-carbon futures is driving large-scale battery manufacturing worldwide. Against this backdrop, Morrow Batteries is building a battery cell production plant in the Norwegian town of Arendal, raising expectations across the region and beyond of a post-oil pathway to wealth, prosperity and employment. Based on extensive ethnographic research, this article examines how local government and industry actors draw on industrial pasts and historical figures – specifically industrialist Sam Eyde and politician Arne Rettedal – when imagining what the battery industry might become. Here, the moral exemplarity of Eyde, Rettedal and the histories they represent offer a means of legitimising the Norwegian sociotechnical imaginary of a ‘good’ battery industry based on collective endeavour, selflessness and responsibility towards society.