Greening extraction: “Harvesting” the sun and lithium in the Andes

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The energy transition is a multifaceted process involving a diversity of resources, stakeholders, networks, interests, infrastructures, geographies, power relations and imaginaries. On the triple border between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, new energy geographies are emerging at the turn of the 21st century. These are based on the multiplication of lithium mining projects, a key resource for the production of lithium-ion batteries to serve the global decarbonization of the transport and industrial sectors, and the construction of new solar infrastructures to meet rising national and regional needs. The transition locally showcases new materialities that are transforming landscapes. The new energy projects illustrate the extension of extractive activities in the Andean margins in other forms. The transition allows local resources to be rebuilt as sources of wealth, progress and sustainability, as evidenced by the discourses of the promoters of the lithium and solar projects. This green extractivism is fuelling a new cycle of commodification of nature in the Altiplania, driven by global companies and, in some cases, direct alliances between lithium and solar energy players. As well as being a source of local energy bifurcation by improving access to energy services in areas little or not connected, these projects are also a source of vulnerability for the host regions due to their socio-environmental impacts in territories that are not empty, despite some central speeches.