New technologies and remote places; a study of place-based adoption readiness to electrify water taxis on the Galapagos islands.

Low carbon technologies need to reach technical maturity and become more affordable before we can expect their adoption to scale up.Once adoption at scale is achieved in large geographical markets, how rapidly or likely will this benefit users in smaller and more geographically remote markets?We examine the case of a technology that has been little studied to date; battery electric outboard engines.It is a mature technology with sales rapidly growing in US and European markets, but despite the environmental and economic benefits that this technology can offer, adoption remains low in more remote and island communities and in much of the Global South.Drawing on an empirical study of the potential (solar) electrification of water taxis on the Galapagos islands, this study develops place-based adoption readiness as a relational account of the factors underpinning the processes of technology adoption.Drawing on qualitative empirical evidence from interviews and focus group meetings, we explore how adoption depends on the configuration formed by the technology, its geographical setting and the services which it is expected to provide.We propose a heuristic framework and organise our empirical evidence accordingly to show how this perspective connects technical maturity with situated learning, service integration capacity and sustained routine use, while explaining how geographical and institutional conditions shape the relationships among them.The framework helps to explain why technoeconomic feasibility may remain disconnected from routine adoption and offers propositions for future research to support locally beneficial transitions to cleaner technologies.