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Sustainability transitions in cities in emerging economic contexts are rarely addressed. The paper addresses this issue by investigating the drivers and barriers in the diffusion of solar thermal energy in two Chinese cities, Dezhou and Beijing. The findings suggest that latecomer cities such as Dezhou demonstrate several advantages over developed cities in environmental transitions. In particular they can ‘leapfrog’ to environmentally-friendly technologies as they are less locked-in by existing technological regimes. The paper thus contributes to debates over the role of both space and the urban scale in sustainability transitions research