EnvJustice

Article by Sofia Avila-Calero.

Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01662-2

Abstract

This overview article proposes the concept of Solar Capitalism to contribute to the emerging political economies and ecologies of energy transition. Solar Capitalism is here defined as the diverse set of accumulation strategies responding to the combined challenge of climate change and the progressive decline of fossil fuels globally: a process that implies shifts in the reliance of stock to flows forms of energy; from high to low energy capacities; and from abundant to relatively scarce natural resources and services. What differentiates Solar Capitalism from other solar economies (either historical forms or potential future forms) is the attempt to reproduce and expand circuits of capital accumulation under contemporary biophysical conditions, forcing the spatiotemporal profile of flow and common resources to work in terms of stock and enclosable energy resources. In the making of these shifts, Solar Capitalism pushes for the appropriation of “cheap” nature and labor, setting the stage for renewed forms of exploitation over peripheral geographies, communities, and species. As argued, solar capitalist frontiers are produced over land, minerals, and precarious labor, raising urgent questions for debates on just transitions and alternative solar futures.