Electric Wind

Marianna Dudley's Electric Wind examines the rise of wind energy in modern Britain, situating technological developments within broader environmental, cultural, and political contexts.

The book traces experiments from nineteenth-century inventors through mid-century state trials in places like Orkney, the countercultural adoption of renewables in the 1970s, and the market-driven expansion of wind farms after electricity privatization.

Dudley highlights the interplay between meteorological knowledge, landscape, community responses, and policy choices that shaped wind's trajectory.

She considers offshore developments, surveillance and military dimensions, and contemporary debates over aesthetics, ecology, and equity.

The final chapter offers speculative 'energy imaginaries' proposing more democratic, community-centred models for distributing wind's benefits.