Literature on socio-technical transitions acknowledge that negative risk perception is important to socio-technical transitions. This article argues that beyond identifying risk as a potential barrier, the acceptance or rejection of innovative options because of risks is a predictor of the transition pathway being adopted. This article analyses discussions from citizen’s jury sessions held in three Saskatchewan cities to identify how local citizens perceive risk in low carbon base-load technologies. It shows how risk analysis influence choices of power generation technologies, which in turn influence energy systems transition pathways in Saskatchewan. It finds that in Saskatchewan, a history of usage and consumption, rather than cost or technical risk, is the strongest factor influencing people’s perception and tolerance of risk in innovative technologies in the energy sector, allowing for options such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be deployed.

关于社会技术转型的文献承认，负面的风险感知对社会技术转型至关重要。本文认为，除了将风险识别为潜在障碍之外，由于风险而接受或拒绝创新选择还可以预测所采用的过渡途径。本文分析了萨斯喀彻温省三个城市举行的公民陪审团的讨论，以确定当地公民如何看待低碳基础负荷技术的风险。它显示了风险分析如何影响发电技术的选择，进而影响了萨斯喀彻温省的能源系统过渡路径。研究发现，在萨斯喀彻温省，使用和消耗的历史，而不是成本或技术风险，