Solidaric solarities: Governance principles for transforming solar power relations

Abstract

Solar energy has become the world's cheapest and fastest scaling electricity source. Multiple societal sectors are electrifying, and the scale and pace of change give some hope of near-future rapid climate mitigation through solar rollouts despite the bleak record to date. Critiques of utility-scale solar development foreground injustices like displacing marginalised groups and perpetuating resource inequity. Governance scholars argue for stringent regulations towards just transitions, and community energy research shows that smaller-scale solar solutions hold promise in being more equitable. Our contribution argues for the possibility of redistributive and emancipatory solar development, drawing from scholarship on governance (institutional configurations, policy mixes and cross-sectoral regulation) and scale (comparative energy geographies with attention to context-specificity and trans-local connection). We conceptualise and operationalise the term ‘solidaric solarities’ as modalities of harnessing solar energy to advance empowerment, interconnectedness and community wealth for victims of energy injustices. This focuses on political economy issues, where solar development can advance solidarity with historically marginalised groups, to create affordable distributed future renewable energy systems. The analysis underpinning this normative orientation leverages secondary research and scholarly expertise on solar rollouts. We offer pragmatic governance principles informed by values that engender solidarity, illuminating potential pathways to enable solidaric solar transitions.