Low-carbon energy infrastructure: where affective relations co-evolve with governmentality projects

• Care practices and economic activities shape affective ties and place attachments. • Affects such as hope mediate ties between local assemblages and energy projects. • Collective community action emerges from affective responses to energy projects. • Inclusive, locally informed energy project design enhances acceptance and resilience. Opposition from local communities and stakeholder groups to the siting of large-scale renewable energy infrastructure remains a significant barrier to the expansion of the renewable energy sector in the UK, with serious implications for achieving net zero carbon emission targets. While existing research has underscored the importance of affective relations to place in understanding local responses to such projects, the dynamic nature of these bonds is not fully understood. This paper explores how relations between large-scale infrastructure projects and local communities co-evolve through affective attachment to place and their self-organising capacities. This is approached by drawing on governmentality studies, assemblage thinking and affect theory to assess how affective relations mobilise local agency and reconfigure socio-ecological relations. Using the Morlais tidal demonstration project in Holy Island, Anglesey, UK as a case study, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with 21 participants from local stakeholder groups, supplemented with information from relevant documents. The findings showed that affective attachments to place—rooted in care practices, cultural identity, and economic activities—were multiple and often conflicting and affects specifically, hope and fear were found to facilitate self-organisation and collective action. The paper contributes to debates on infrastructure projects and environmental governance and informs more inclusive and adaptive renewable energy governance strategies.