In this paper, we show that energy transition involves a material and cultural process of accommodating new machinery into the local land. Based on ethnographic research and historical analysis on Jeju Island, South Korea, we examine how local residents make sense of wind turbines that are built onto their places. Machinery for energy transition brings about material changes in the land, which elicit emotional or cultural responses. We characterize this material and cultural process that accompanies the introduction of wind turbines as implantation. As wind turbines are implanted in the island of Jeju, the places are remade materially via soil, rock, and concrete, and culturally via language, memory, and attitude. Existing materials and ideas are removed to allow for new turbines and new meanings of wind. The case of wind turbines on Jeju shows that, even as the residents came to embrace wind energy as part of the future carbon-free initiative, they became attuned to the new type of power and machine only gradually through cultural and material implantation. As a multi-faceted and place-specific process, implantation may continue even after the installation of machinery is over.
