This PhD in Policy Analysis, supervised by Prof Mark Swilling, investigates the socio-economic and political ramifications of decentralised renewable energy infrastructure, and uses a transdisciplinary research methodology to explore this in the context of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). The conceptual innovation at the core of this research project is developing an understanding of ‘Urban Energy Democracy’ where, in a changing energy landscape, and an increasingly urbanised world, a new understanding of the co-constitutive nature of energy infrastructure and the political economy is required to foster pathways towards sustainability transitions.