Battery In/Formation

Modalities of Energy in Transition

Abstract

This article explores how the energy transition is reconfiguring knowledge practices that mediate the relationship between energy and capitalist valuation. It argues that batteries should be understood not only as storage technologies but as information devices that translate intermittent renewable flows into commodifiable forms of energy. Through three case studies – of a virtual battery, Bitcoin-as-battery, and a grid storage battery – the paper identifies three modalities of energy: account, waste, and stock. Each exemplifies how valuation practices (accounting, evaluation, valorisation) abstract energy from its material conditions and render it exchangeable within markets. Batteries thus operate as devices in which planetary energies are re-articulated as economic objects, sustaining the commodification of renewables. The article highlights how the transition to renewables is also a transformation of the knowledge practices that govern energy’s circulation.