Introduction It has become increasingly clear that to make the major carbon reductions being called for to mitigate future climate change there will need to be moves towards energy systems that incorporate a far greater use of renewable energy technologies (Stern 2007; European Union Council 2007). Such emerging energy systems will, at least in the medium term, take a hybrid form, with large-scale coal, gas and nuclear generation operated alongside more distributed and multi-scaled configurations of renewable energy technologies. What this might imply for technical engineering, regulation and market performance is being increasingly discussed in the academic and policy literatures (e.g. Pehnt et al. 2006; Sauter and Watson 2007; Willis 2006). However, there are also profound social and geographical implications embedded within emerging patterns of renewable