As the global energy transition accelerates, desert regions are increasingly being targeted for large-scale solar energy projects. “Desert Frontiers” examines how historical land classifications continue to influence this development.

The project focuses on India’s Thar Desert, where some of the world’s largest solar parks occupy land officially classified as “wasteland”. It investigates how such classifications emerged during the colonial period, persisted through changing political regimes, and now shape the allocation of land for solar energy. Developments in Morocco and Pakistan will provide comparative perspectives.

Bringing together environmental history, political ecology, postcolonial studies, and legal geography, “Desert Frontiers” will also examine the consequences of these classifications for local and pastoral communities and their forms of land use.