For infrastructural technologies (water, energy,
transport etc.) such conceptualisations have informed
analysis of the ways in which the often hidden and
mundane services of everyday life are provided and
how systems of provision have evolved over time
(Hughes 1983; Schwartz Cowan 1987; Southerton
et al.
2004; Shove 2003). Recent trends, it has been
argued, have the potential for radical transformation
of established infrastructural ideals as urban spaces
and related socio-technical infrastructures fracture and
reform (Graham and Marvin 2001; Coutard 2005).
This opens up possibilities for the development of
greener modes and systems of provision in which
new forms of interaction between utilities and con-
sumers are developed, new intermediaries become
involved and new patterns of differentiation and
co-provisioning can emerge (Van Vliet 2002; VanVliet et al. 2005). The specific possibilities presented
by distributed renewable energy generation have
been part of the tracing of innovative sustainable
socio-technical configurations in this literature (Van
Vliet 2002; Chappells 2003), including analysis o
how radically new consumer–producer relations and
interactions may emerge. Our objective in this paper
is to apply elements of this analysis more systematically
to the evolving UK context so as to provide a moredifferentiated view of the roles for ‘publics’ that
are being produced and an initial exploration of the
policy implications arising from these understandings