Building the Hydrogen Highway: The Visions of a Large-Scale Hydrogen Project in Norway

Abstract

This paper focuses on the visions incorporated by the Hydrogen Road in Norway (HyNor) project. This is a large-scale project that aims to demonstrate real life implementation of hydrogen in the transport sector in Norway. The starting point of the analysis is that visions play an important role in technological projects. Visions carry, communicate and construct valid practices and meanings in technology. Consequently, visions in technological projects should be a matter of analysis. The following paper discusses both the meaning of technological visions and the kinds of visions that have been deployed in the HyNor project. This discussion shows that HyNor's visions are numerous, flexible and dynamic. Furthermore the ambivalence and tension in the project's visions represent a challenge that needs to be dealt with.

Keywords

Technology Visions Hydrogen Energy Transport Actor-Network Theory

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akrich

(1992). ‘The de-scription of technical objects’ in BIJKER

W.E.

, & LAW

(eds.). Shaping technology/Building Society. MIT Press, Cambridge.

Andersen

(2006) Non-technological barriers for hydrogen as an energy-carrier in transport. What can be learned from CUTE, ECTOS and HySociety? Sogndal: Western Norway Research Institute

Barreto

, MAKIHIRA

, & RIAHI

(2003) ‘The hydrogen economy in the 21^st century. A sustainable development scenario’, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 28, 267–284.

Beck

(1995) Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press

Bijker

W.E.

, & PINCH

(1987). ‘The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other’ in BIJKER

W.E.

, HUGHES

T.P.

, & PINCH

(ed.) The Social Construction of Technological Systems, Cambridge: MIT Press

Callon

(1987) ‘Society in the making: The study of technology as tool for sociological analysis’ In BIJKER

, HUGHES

, and PINCH

(eds), The Social Construction of Technological Systems, pp 83–103. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Cherry

R.S.

(2004). ‘A hydrogen utopia?’ International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 29, 125–129

Dunn

(2002). ‘Hydrogen futures: towards a sustainable energy system.’ International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 27(3), p. 235–264.

Flynn

, BELLABY

, & RICCI

(2006). ‘Risk Perception of an Mergent Technology: The Case of Hydrogen Energy,’ Forum Qualitative Sozialforchnung, Vol. 7, No. 1[On-line Journal]

10.

Giddens

(1994). ‘Living in a Post-Traditional Society’ In Beck

, Giddens

& Lash

Reflexive Modernisation, Cambridge: Polity Press

11.

Gjøen

(2001) Gasstanker. En Sosiologisk studie av visjoner og virkelighetskonstruksjoner knyttet til bruk av naturgass i Norge, Trondheim: Senter for teknologi og samfunn, NTNU

12.

Hansen

A. M.

(2000). ‘Fuel cell bus undergoes public testing’ Renewable energy newsletter, march 2000. p. 13–15

13.

Hoffman

(1981) The Forever Fuel. The Story of Hydrogen, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press

14.

Holden

(2005) En personlig beskrivelse av HyNor-prosjektets tidlige fase samt de aktørene som deltok. Draft paper. Sogndal: Western Norway Research Institute

15.

Høyer

K.G.

(2007). ‘The History of Alternative Fuels. The Case of Electrical Cars,’ 4th Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment System

16.

HYDROGEN HIGHWAY, (2006). HyNor - markedsnærtprosjekt: Introduksjon av hydrogen som miljøvennlig drivstoff. Application to the Norwegian Research Council 2006

17.

Kvale

(1996) InterViews. An Introduction to qualitative Research Interviewing, London: Sage Publications

18.

KÅRSTEIN

(2007) Constructing ‘The Hydrogen Road’: Social learning in the Hydrogen Economy. Draft paper. Trondheim: NTNU, Dept. of interdisciplinary studies of culture

19.

KÅRSTEIN

(2005) Langs ‘Hydrogenveien i Norge’: Om historien bak HyNor og en innledende kartlegging av prosjektet og dets deltakere, Trondheim: STS-working paper 01/05

20.

Latour

(1987) Science in Action, How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

21.

Latour

(2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, New York: Oxford University Press

22.

Law

(1987). (eds) Power, Action and Belief: a new Sociology of knowledge? London: RKP.

23.

Law

, & HASSARD

(2005) Actor Network Theory and after, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

24.

NORWEGIAN OFFICIAL REPORT (2004). Hydrogen som fremtidens energibærer, NOU 2004: 11 [green paper]

25.

NORWEGIAN OFFICIAL REPORT (2006) Et klimavennlig Norge, NOU 2006: 18 [green paper]

26.

Shinnar

(2003) ‘The hydrogen economy, fuel cells, and electric cars,’ Technology in Society 25, 455–476.

27.

Silverman

(2001) Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, London: Sage Publications

28.

Verne

(1874) The Mysterious Island, London: Penguin

29.

Winner

(1986) The Whale and the Reactor: a Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press