Subjects of the Sun: Solar Energy in the Shadows of Racial Capitalism [Kietas viršelis]

"Subjects of the Sun explores the friction between media representations of solar energy technologies and the material conditions under which Black and Brown subjects work and live in locales where clean energy is produced. While social media and advertising representations of renewable energy technologies show images of people of color whose communities have been revitalized by solar, Myles Lennon contends that these images serve to mask the continued workings of racial capitalism which continually render Black and Brown people disposable. Drawing on ethnographic research on solar energy corporations and local "energy democracy" campaigns in New York City, Lennon shows how the material properties of solar technologies work closely with images, digital platforms, and quantitative graphics to shape a utopic vision in which renewable energy can eradicate the constitutive tensions of racial capitalism. Subjects of the Sun is a much-needed account of the perils of uncritically embracing renewable energy technologies without also examining the material and cultural effects of energy extraction on marginalized communities"--

Myles Lennon offers an ethnographic study of cleantech corporations and community solar campaigns in New York City, calling for a just energy transition that privileges everyday senses over digital understandings of solar power.

In the face of accelerating climate change, anticapitalist environmental justice activists and elite tech corporations increasingly see eye to eye. Both envision solar-powered futures where renewable energy redresses gentrification, systemic racism, and underemployment. However, as Myles Lennon argues in Subjects of the Sun, solar power is no less likely to exploit marginalized communities than dirtier forms of energy. Drawing from ethnographic research on clean energy corporations and community solar campaigns in New York City, Lennon argues that both groups overlook solar’s extractive underside because they primarily experience energy from the sun in the virtual world of the cloud. He shows how the material properties of solar technology—its shiny surfaces, decentralized spatiality, and modularity—work closely with images, digital platforms, and quantitative graphics to shape utopic visions in which renewable energy can eradicate the constitutive tensions of racial capitalism. As a corrective to this virtual world, Lennon calls for an equitable energy transition that centers the senses and sensibilities neglected by screenwork: one’s haptic care for their local environment; the full-bodied feel of infrastructural labor; and the sublime affect of the sun.

In the face of accelerating climate change, anticapitalist environmental justice activists and elite tech corporations increasingly see eye-to-eye. Both envision solar-powered futures where renewable energy redresses gentrification, systemic racism, and underemployment. However, as Myles Lennon argues in Subjects of the Sun, solar power is no less likely to exploit marginalized communities than dirtier forms of energy. Drawing from ethnographic research on clean energy corporations and community solar campaigns in New York City, Lennon argues that both groups overlook solar’s extractive underside because they primarily experience energy from the sun in the virtual world of the cloud. He shows how the material properties of solar technology—its shiny surfaces, decentralized spatiality, and modularity—work closely with images, digital platforms, and quantitative graphics to shape utopic visions in which renewable energy can eradicate the constitutive tensions of racial capitalism. As a corrective to this virtual world, Lennon calls for an equitable energy transition that centers the senses and sensibilities neglected by screenwork: one’s haptic care for their local environment; the full-bodied feel of infrastructural labor; and the sublime affect of the sun.