To help in characterising the meshing of the
technological and the social within evolving
infrastructures of renewable energy provision, we
adopt in this section a shorthand that distinguishes
between the ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ of socio-
technical systems. Using this we can conceive the
‘hardware’ of engineered artefacts as being utilised
within and through the co-dependent and co-evolving
‘software’ of its social organisation. Each of these
elements is considered in turn.