The temporalities and externalities of ancillary infrastructure in large-scale renewable energy projects: Insights from the rural periphery

Ancillary infrastructures such as roads, workers camps, or water management systems are an essential prerequisite for realizing large-scale renewable energy projects. They usually are established before the power plant is constructed and differ from it in their temporalities and externalities. Especially in peripheral regions in the Global South, ancillary infrastructure can have negative impacts on the affected communities as well as bring them significant co-benefits. Despite its extensive and often far-reaching nature, as well as social and ecological consequences, ancillary infrastructure has received little scholarly attention, and is often not given sufficient consideration by planners and investors. This article foregrounds ancillary infrastructure in peripheral rural areas with little pre-existing infrastructure. It provides a typology of ancillary and other infrastructures as well as a systematic discussion of its temporalities and externalities, and argues that local acceptance can increase significantly owed to positive externalities deriving from ancillary infrastructure. We illustrate our conceptual framework with the example of a large geothermal project in Kenya. Based on these conceptual and empirical findings, we conclude with detailed policy recommendations. •Ancillary infrastructure is needed to realize large-scale renewable energy projects.•Ancillary infrastructure planning and realisation follows its own temporal logic.•Ancillary infrastructure may have significant positive and negative externalities.•Ancillary infrastructure should be given greater scientific and planning attention.