The solarpunk aesthetic is key to the ethos of this burgeoning movement – as there can be a real power to an aesthetic:

Known for its burgeoning stock of illustrations depicting futuristic cities spilling with vegetation, radical designs for clean energy infrastructures, and creative bottom-up solutions to the contemporary struggle of ensuring a sustainable future for the planet, Solarpunk can be thought of as something that, according to one proponent, “seeks to answer and embody the question ‘what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?’”

So then, whilst sci-fi, sustainability and hope “can offer an aesthetic and a sense of optimism that is actionable”, in fact the SolarPunk aesthetic and movement is more than science fiction:

Wherever you see Solarpunk though, it’s about finding solutions and not falling in despair. It’s not only about the beautiful vision, but also about the underlying issues. The “punk” is there for a reason – the Solarpunk movement rebels against the mainstream… the biggest strength of Solarpunk lies in having us start imagining what a better future could look like. I can’t imagine any better way than with visuals and stories.

To finish, this is from a recent piece from the Strike Magazine on Unpacking the Aesthetics of Solar Punk:

Creating art is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. It not only shapes our idea of how humanity functions but how it could function in the future. When the future is depicted in a modern context, it is typically through a dystopian presentation. We are taught to view our future as hopeless, which correlates to a lack of personal action to strive toward a better reality. In this way, art and imagination are essential to political movements. Solarpunk embodies this sentiment as it recenters fun, beauty, and ingenuity in serious political discourse, and encapsulates everything from a positive imagining of our future to practical ways we can work toward this reality…

Solarpunk gives us the space to visualize this future which is an essential first step to achieving a better reality, as we must first be able to imagine a better future if we are to have a chance at attaining it.    

…