The materiality of failed futures: Tensions and transformations of a fossil infrastructure

Abstract

Infrastructures for renewable energy are central to contemporary political responses to the imperative of decarbonization. As green technological promises gain momentum, it becomes crucial to examine not only what is newly emerging but also what is being rendered obsolete and left behind—the promised futures that turned out to have failed while new ones emerge as promising. This article addresses these debates by empirically examining the historical trajectory of a coal-fired power plant in a carbon-intensive region of the Catalan Pyrenees, showcasing it as a fossil infrastructure emblematic of modern society’s material foundations and aspirations. Based on qualitative research into the situated processes of construction, deterioration, abandonment, and transformation, this article elucidates how the power plant vividly embodies the modern conception of the future as open, accelerated, and progress-oriented. However, the plant’s nonlinear trajectory and enduring materiality over time reveal the tensions, contradictions, and limits of this hegemonic notion of the future. By analyzing industrial remnants as material traces of failed futures, this article highlights their critical role in shaping sustainable pathways, particularly as green technological initiatives emerge in contexts where industrial forces once flourished.