SolarPunk and solar energy are interlinked – and both have huge promise.
Here are a few extracts from a piece which starts in Puerto Rico after this summer’s hurricanes:
Solar power has taken root in Puerto Rico. Community-based nonprofits, like Casa Pueblo, are demanding decentralized solar energy, with an eye to boosting the island’s future resilience, as hurricanes and other extreme weather events worsen due to global heating.
The word “solarpunk” encompasses both a political ideal and a burgeoning subgenre of climate fiction, which celebrates the brilliant abundance of the sun as well as what has been termed “solarity.” This “solarity” could refer to Socrates’s description of the solar elements that inhabit and enliven planetary life
Significantly, as is evidenced by the success of projects like Queremos Sol, solarpunk fictions are not mere utopian fantasies. Indeed, such narratives ought to be understood within the framework of the “critical utopia”.
Can Solarpunk Save the World? – Public Books
With more from Puerto Rico:
Casa Pueblo • Puerto Rico – Organización de Autogestión Comunitaria