A Green Energy Frontier Long in the Making: From Tin to Solar Power in the Riau Islands, Indonesia

The Riau Islands in Indonesia, Southeast Asia are an emerging green energy frontier. This paper shows the long-term making of this frontier. Through qualitative research, I trace colonial machinations for the capture of agrarian and mineral resources, postcolonial Cold War manoeuvres for the procurement of oil, and the contemporary quest for natural gas, sand, and green energy. Processes of resource extraction have systematically sidelined people and place for capital accumulation, facilitated by the state. This has resulted in unrest, with the effect of boosting the heavy-handed state that is required to continually step in to control and settle the so-called frontier. As the world looks towards viable spaces for the generation of green energy, it is crucial to interrogate the long in the making sacrificial zones, particularly in the Global South, which are expected to produce our collective salvation from the climate crisis.