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Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga
Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world.
The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world.
Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages--Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon--are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga--an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.
The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world.
Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages--Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon--are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga--an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.
440 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2019
13 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 31, 2022
This is a cooool book!! I wish there were a documentary on it. The book has such intense visualizations .. the writing itself along with the story is futuristic.
In short, in an era when we are living under the threat of global warming and pondering over (not actually) different alternative energy futures and green, eco-friendly energy sources, this book sheds light on state of the art marine energy technologies, advances, and infrastructures that might only dwell in most of our imaginations but are a vivid reality for the residents of Orkley Islands. This island has been a living testing site for the generations of marine energy prototypes that are able to produce electricity from tidal waves.
But neither the equations nor the relations are easy among the stakeholders and the community living in Orkney island. What I deeply love about this work is going on and living with communal differences, a community that is bound together with its differences rather than self-proclaimed similarities. The Orkney island community doesn't try to push the majority's decision as the communal needs and wants.
Living a life in the close vicinity of energy futures creates a unique circumstance. Whose voices get heard, whose needs get priortized
In short, in an era when we are living under the threat of global warming and pondering over (not actually) different alternative energy futures and green, eco-friendly energy sources, this book sheds light on state of the art marine energy technologies, advances, and infrastructures that might only dwell in most of our imaginations but are a vivid reality for the residents of Orkley Islands. This island has been a living testing site for the generations of marine energy prototypes that are able to produce electricity from tidal waves.
But neither the equations nor the relations are easy among the stakeholders and the community living in Orkney island. What I deeply love about this work is going on and living with communal differences, a community that is bound together with its differences rather than self-proclaimed similarities. The Orkney island community doesn't try to push the majority's decision as the communal needs and wants.
Living a life in the close vicinity of energy futures creates a unique circumstance. Whose voices get heard, whose needs get priortized
February 25, 2019
This is an eminently singular book - a rare find, written with startling idiosyncracies, and paying attention to issues that few others know enough to recognize, nevermind speak about with any erudition. On its face, this is a book about marine energy in the Orkney islands. But it is about more than that too, and Watts takes the opportunity to dredge and sieve through contemporary critical theory, evocative visions of mythology, and the many wonderful hours of personal ethnography conducted on the islands. Orkney's history, future, and people cross the many concerns with its ecology and possible economies.
And then there's the fact that Watts is writing about Orkney with the unmistakable tone of a convert, someone who has found themselves returning, ineluctably, to a place with only glimpses of understanding about what kind of magical spell it is that these Northern isles cast on their visitors.
For readers interested in issues of local climate change and renewable energy adaptation in the face of governmental blunt power, this book is for you. For those looking for an example of academic knowledge turning wisely to issues pertinent to real human beings as a support, and not a hammer or a knife, this book is for you. For those seeking to comprehend the ecological richness of islands, this book is for you. For those with patience and deep reserves of mobile interest in writerly voices that transgress the formal bounds of severe style, this book is for you.
Watts is on the cusp of the wave here. I hope - signs portend - there may be glimmerings of a bright future.
And then there's the fact that Watts is writing about Orkney with the unmistakable tone of a convert, someone who has found themselves returning, ineluctably, to a place with only glimpses of understanding about what kind of magical spell it is that these Northern isles cast on their visitors.
For readers interested in issues of local climate change and renewable energy adaptation in the face of governmental blunt power, this book is for you. For those looking for an example of academic knowledge turning wisely to issues pertinent to real human beings as a support, and not a hammer or a knife, this book is for you. For those seeking to comprehend the ecological richness of islands, this book is for you. For those with patience and deep reserves of mobile interest in writerly voices that transgress the formal bounds of severe style, this book is for you.
Watts is on the cusp of the wave here. I hope - signs portend - there may be glimmerings of a bright future.
November 24, 2025
Energy at the End of the World is a fascinating and deeply researched ethnographic exploration of how a remote island community is quietly shaping the future of global energy innovation. Laura Watts takes readers to Orkney, a rugged archipelago north of mainland Scotland, and reveals how this seemingly isolated region has become a hub of renewable experimentation from marine power and tidal systems to hydrogen fuel networks and an evolving smart grid.
The strength of the book lies in its blend of storytelling and scholarship. Watts traces thousands of years of technological ingenuity in Orkney, connecting the stone circles and tools of past civilizations with the cutting edge prototypes and test sites of today. The result is a moving narrative that shows innovation not as theory, but as something lived, built, and shared within local culture.
This is not just a study of energy systems it is a human centered account of how real communities respond to environmental challenges with creativity, resilience, and long term vision. Rich, lyrical, and deeply informative, the book will resonate with readers interested in energy futures, sustainability, anthropology, and stories of place based innovation. A unique and compelling read that transforms the way we think about the edge of the world and what might begin there.
The strength of the book lies in its blend of storytelling and scholarship. Watts traces thousands of years of technological ingenuity in Orkney, connecting the stone circles and tools of past civilizations with the cutting edge prototypes and test sites of today. The result is a moving narrative that shows innovation not as theory, but as something lived, built, and shared within local culture.
This is not just a study of energy systems it is a human centered account of how real communities respond to environmental challenges with creativity, resilience, and long term vision. Rich, lyrical, and deeply informative, the book will resonate with readers interested in energy futures, sustainability, anthropology, and stories of place based innovation. A unique and compelling read that transforms the way we think about the edge of the world and what might begin there.
January 23, 2026
Energy at the End of the World is a richly textured and insightful exploration of how technological innovation, place, and culture intersect in the making of sustainable energy futures. Through the lens of the Orkney Islands, Laura Watts shows that energy transition is not merely a technical challenge, but a deeply social, historical, and imaginative process.
What sets this book apart is its blending of ethnography and storytelling with rigorous analysis. Watts situates contemporary renewable energy innovation within six thousand years of island making, revealing continuity between ancient technologies and modern experiments in marine energy, hydrogen fuel, and smart grids. Orkney emerges not as a peripheral outpost, but as a global center of expertise and long-term thinking.
The narrative is both lyrical and empirical, making complex energy systems understandable without stripping them of their cultural meaning. Energy at the End of the World is an essential contribution to science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and energy policy, offering a hopeful and grounded vision of locally driven low-carbon futures
What sets this book apart is its blending of ethnography and storytelling with rigorous analysis. Watts situates contemporary renewable energy innovation within six thousand years of island making, revealing continuity between ancient technologies and modern experiments in marine energy, hydrogen fuel, and smart grids. Orkney emerges not as a peripheral outpost, but as a global center of expertise and long-term thinking.
The narrative is both lyrical and empirical, making complex energy systems understandable without stripping them of their cultural meaning. Energy at the End of the World is an essential contribution to science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and energy policy, offering a hopeful and grounded vision of locally driven low-carbon futures
April 23, 2026
I picked this up bc I’m visiting the Orkney Islands this summer, but it was very interesting to think about it in terms of Wyoming’s energy industry.
Both of these could easily describe Wyoming:
“Places rich in renewable energy resources, like Orkney, are often at the stormy edge.”
“She reminds me how living here requires extra effort. As with so many other edge places around the world-from mountain communities to arid desert nations-you are always pushing against the elements.”
While most of Wyoming’s energy resources are the non-renewable kind, wind farms are all over the place.
The idea of the infrastructure (here, the electric grid) being built under one model, but as renewables become more common finding that model causing problems is not just relevant to the energy sector.
Lots of interesting food for thought and made me more excited for my trip!
Both of these could easily describe Wyoming:
“Places rich in renewable energy resources, like Orkney, are often at the stormy edge.”
“She reminds me how living here requires extra effort. As with so many other edge places around the world-from mountain communities to arid desert nations-you are always pushing against the elements.”
While most of Wyoming’s energy resources are the non-renewable kind, wind farms are all over the place.
The idea of the infrastructure (here, the electric grid) being built under one model, but as renewables become more common finding that model causing problems is not just relevant to the energy sector.
Lots of interesting food for thought and made me more excited for my trip!
June 26, 2019
Both in form and content, this is one of the most unique books (any genre) I've encountered in a long, long time. To say the book is simply an ethnographic survey of Orkney and its resilient, innovative renewable energy sector wouldn't do it justice: Energy at the End of the World somehow combines elements of myth, folklore, geography, geology, marine science, culture studies (feminism, postcolonialism, deep ecology), fiction (magical realism?), and the graphic novel into an amazing piece of scholarship. It's a social enterprise manual, an investigation of the "future-making" challenges and innovations happening at the rural edge. It's both a reorientation and affirmation of what you thought possible. And it's something you should read - seriously.
December 29, 2021
This book was everything. As an anthropologist I've had my fair share of ethnographies, but none of them compare to this book. The way that it combines facts with storytelling and mixes science with myths is simply out of this world. It's also brilliantly written and filled with such interesting insights to both energy futures and social theory. Best academic book I've read in my life and best non-fiction I've read in ages.
December 8, 2022
Will be writing a 2500 word review on it for a class, so I'm saving my words for then.
All I have to say is I knew it: I knew that the governments just don't want to do their jobs to secure sustainable energy resources. It's not that we don't have the means and the technology. It's all about the will of the people in power... I'm still disappointed though. I was hoping to be proven wrong.
All I have to say is I knew it: I knew that the governments just don't want to do their jobs to secure sustainable energy resources. It's not that we don't have the means and the technology. It's all about the will of the people in power... I'm still disappointed though. I was hoping to be proven wrong.
June 3, 2024
read this for an anthropology class last semester and i really really hated it
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews