Changing the rules? Institutional innovation and the diffusion of microgeneration

The paper addresses the question of how institutional change relates to the diffusion of microgeneration energy technologies in the UK, posed in a research project comprising interviews with 31 respondents connected with the field of microgeneration in the UK. It analyses the role of institutional rules in maintaining the prevailing regime of electricity generation, and potentially in niches which might facilitate system change, indicating areas in which institutional rule change has failed or achieved limited impact. The conclusions of the paper inform and deepen understanding of how conformity to or innovation in institutional rules may hamper or potentially contribute to diffusion of environmentally sustainable microgeneration of energy