In the context of electrical energy demand doubling by 2050, this paper considers the public and social acceptance of renewable energy infrastructure (Batel et al., 2013; Zaharuddin et al., 2025). The focus is on largely urban settlements framed as “left behind”, meaning where knowledge and agency are shaped by people’s attachment to places (Pike et al., 2024). Whilst such places lose out to the economic growth model centred on cities, I argue that their history of industrial infrastructure and related employment may be suited to new transmission, supply plants and storage than more rural settings.

The case is framed historically. Sparsely population areas of north of Scotland pioneered hydro energy in the 1940s and more latterly have contributed hugely to wind energy. However, they have relied on extensive transmission infrastructure. More recent planning hurdles have led developers to complex solutions such as undersea cabling. In comparison, politicians in post-industrial settings look to more emotive messages to harness the local potential of renewable. For example, a Mersey Tidal scheme is framed as providing thousands of jobs and powering every home in Liverpool City Region.

Methodologically, this paper discusses participatory online spaces (Radtke and Bohn, 2026) to help stakeholders to grasp the joins and ruptures in planning systems and related data. The latter is illustrated by a series of workshops and short film led by the author in 2025 to visualise energy supply futures in the Wales and the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

(references available as requested)