This research project, carried out by Sustainable Energy Technology graduate student Si Liu, provides an assessment of the jatropha social-technical system development in China. The assessment is based on field work carried out by the researcher at jatropha plantations in Yunnan province of China, and focuses specifically on understanding the drivers and barriers that exist in the further development of the jatropha sector by applying knowledge from the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and Strategic Niche Management (SNM) theoretical frameworks.The research found that the sector had been subject of a spectacular hype in the early years of the century, followed by an equally dramatic crash when economic circumstances deteriorated after 2008.