The discourses present in cultural products allow us to identify trends circulating in society and warn of changes in perspectives on different public issues. In the case of renewable energies, it is interesting to observe the role they play in recent successful series and films, and how the companies that develop them are characterised.
One of the latest Nordic series of note, the Danish Bedrag (The Money Route), features a large renewable energy company, Energreen, at the centre of a plot of corruption, greed and crime. In Spanish productions, the theme is increasingly prevalent, as the award-winning films Alcarràs and As Bestas demonstrate.
In Alcarràs, it is the photovoltaic panels that interrupt the more or less peaceful agricultural life of a family dedicated to the fruits of the earth. In this place on the border between Catalonia and Aragon, the sun's energy has until now been converted into peaches, but a new business intends to transform it into electricity without the farmers' approval.
In As Bestas, the big winner at the Goya Awards, it is the wind turbines of a Norwegian company that break into the idyllic landscape of a Galician village. Once again, it is a married couple who cultivate an organic vegetable garden and dream of the return of the population to their old rural homes who are confronted with the change of model. The director, Rodrigo SorogoyenThe wind energy industry," he said, launched a clear slogan when collecting one of the awards: "Wind energy yes, but not like this".
This conception of green energies as enemies of rural, natural, empty or emptied Spain, as accomplices of an erroneous economic model, is relatively new in artistic discourse. Especially because this negative vision is no longer held by staunch defenders of hydrocarbons, but by profiles close to a certain vision of the ecological, the organic and the rustic. It has now been incorporated into the activism of cultural creators.
It is important to analyse these trends, because green energy communication must be able to deal with new social concerns. The positive inertia that sustainable sources originally enjoyed is no longer sufficient, but a complex scenario with many more nuances is emerging.
Climate issues are very much on the agenda, as are energy issues, accentuated in everyone's pocket by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ecological transition is strongly linked to both the EU's line of action and the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. And while the role of non-renewable sources in the energy mix is still under discussion, no one is seriously considering reversing the development of sustainable energy sources.
Recently, the report "European Electricity Review, from the think tank Emberrevealed that in 2022, wind and solar power will generate one-fifth of the EU's electricity (22%), overtaking fossil gas (20%) for the first time. Moreover, renewables have little in common with the technology that existed decades ago, when they were still a fading promise.
Issues such as technological advances, digitisation, the use of the Internet and the blockchain or the development of new fields such as storage, which is becoming increasingly vital. Batteries, increasingly advanced and powerful, make it possible to accumulate green energy and use it at times of peak demand or when required by the grid. The sector is evolving, and so must its communication.
The shaping of the discourse on renewables will continue to be contested from different perspectives, receiving diverse statements from governments, companies, academic and research centres, non-governmental organisations and the new climate activists. For all these reasons, it is more important than ever to have a leading role in this new film. With its own articulate voice, the product of a well-designed communication strategy that can effectively convey the purpose and actions of a renewable energy company.
Strategic communication must accompany innovation and the updating of the image of this industry, taken very seriously by companies, but also by public administrations and organisations linked to sustainability. The new script of the film is being written.
*Alberto Mendoza is an account manager at PROA.