By Rachel Smyth 

Picture a city where beams of sunlight illuminate stained-glass buildings with power glittering solar panels on every roof. Up high, colourful stacked apartments host tumbling plants and rooftop forests while electric cable cars carry passengers to-and-fro, above twisting streets filled with cyclists and pedestrians. Imagine a multicultural society where people who are unrestricted by gender norms, ethnicity, or skin colour, come together in flourishing community gardens and other open spaces to share ideas, wearing earth-toned and upcycled clothes. Welcome to the strange and beautiful world of solarpunk. In a media landscape increasingly occupied by negative news stories and pessimistic predictions, some groups are clinging tightly to an optimistic outlook. Informed by sub-genres like steampunk, cyberpunk and dieselpunk, yet refusing to engage in their often-gloomy outlooks (nor their reliance on fossil fuels), solarpunk is a climate-focused aesthetic, subgenre, and political movement that you never knew you needed.

First coined in 2008, the term solarpunk began to appear more widely after 2014 when it sparked discussion online and became the subject of literature, anthologies, and art. As a relatively new genre, solarpunk is constantly being redefined and is yet to reach mainstream attention, despite being picked up by some media and researchers in recent years. Aesthetically, solarpunk has emerged as a blend of art nouveau, upcycled materials, leafy architecture and a touch of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, for example). It could be easy to dismiss as yet another aesthetic, following a long line of ephemeral styles such as “cottagecore” or “dark academia”, which have sprung up over social media in recent years. At first glance, solarpunk-inspired art, architecture, and fashion design seem like fan-art of a futuristic novel, a niche theme based purely on visual appeal. However, as proponents of solarpunk have pointed out (see the Solarpunk Manifesto on re-des.org), the genre is much more than this. It is a political and social movement in its own right, united by its defence of optimism as a valid response to the climate crisis and a belief in community collaboration and renewable energies as the path towards a brighter future. The “solar” element references a hope for renewable energy as a society-changing solution while “punk” indicates a bottom-up and non-conforming element that distances the movement from green-washed messaging and the personal responsibility for “sustainability” that is promoted by capitalist systems.

Solarpunk is seen as a utopian subgenre and movement, in contrast to the darker dystopian themes that are often found in futuristic literature today. In this way, it enters the frequently fought battle within the climate movement between hopeful and “realistic” (and arguably pessimistic) attitudes to the climate crisis. Not only do apocalyptic, worst-case scenarios dominate the burgeoning “cli-fi” genre, but highly unfavourable ecological futures are also popular settings in non-fiction, like The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. While it is certainly important to inform people of the consequences of climate inaction, many scholars have spoken out against the dominating narrative of doom and gloom. The prominent climate scientist Michael E. Mann criticised Wallace-Wells’ message as doomist, inadvertently aiding the narrative of climate denial and inaction by inciting hopelessness rather than productive action. Solarpunk takes a radically different approach. By advocating that the climate crisis is severe and requires immediate societal change, solarpunk envisions communities that not only survive, but re-emerge with better infrastructures, a better quality of life, and reduced social inequalities. But is it responsible to promote such a utopic future? Could it incite complacent dreaming rather than urgent action? Williams describes solarpunk as a “richly elaborated speculative solar energy imaginary” and explains how speculation is an essential first step towards a future independent of fossil fuels and polluting industries – and if we can’t imagine it, how can we build it? Similarly, Reina-Roz points to solarpunk as a  counter-cultural hope that helps us to actualise a world where energy is decolonised and power relations are broken down, allowing space for alternate understandings of humans and their place in ecosystems.

Despite the bottom-up nature of the solarpunk movement and its essentially socialist values, there is always the risk that it may fall prey to capitalist systems, and see its core values eroded away to a superficial aesthetic. This has been witnessed in many climate movements, where concepts like “zero waste” or “minimalistic living” have been criticized for remaining confined to individual, materialistic, and financial contexts that do not consider collective action and often exclude those not privileged enough to participate in these circles. To stay true to its roots, the solarpunk movement must avoid being co-opted by corporations who wish to use it as the new “sustainable” marketing tool while failing to support any real societal changes. Just as the recent trend of thrifted and handmade clothes have informed fast fashion designs, there is a chance that the solarpunk values of circularity, harmony with nature, and cultural diversity could become another short-lived aesthetic rather than a genuine shift to eco-friendly and inclusive lifestyles. In this way, solarpunk enthusiasts must go beyond literary and artistic speculation to incorporate the “punk” spirit into their lived realities and push for concrete changes to our society. Importantly, solarpunk is not purely a distant-future thought experiment. Solarpunk-type actions and organisations can be found in contemporary society, from individuals and companies installing solar panels for more autonomous, clean energy, to circular economy campaigns like the Right to Repair (R2R) and the humble community garden. Keeping a utopian dream of the future in mind can help guide our current actions and feed our drive for positive, inclusive change – as long as we accept the inevitable messy realities of such a society and never give in to a false idea of perfection. Let’s aim for a solarpunk attitude, not an inflexible, utopian ideal.