Solarpunk

Hey Solarpunk people! I'm back to ask if you'd like to join our booklcub. We are a small community of readers, writers, and activists that is dedicated to exploring Solarpunk and adjacent literature. Every week, we discuss one chapter of a book that we choose together. So far, we have read eight books, including The Dispossessed, the Monk and Robot series and a few short story collections. If you want to join our book club just in time to pick our next read, please swing by. We’d be happy to have more people to share thoughts and insights with!

https://discord.gg/2zUph5DSmR

So im a very typical American. Cars, big lawn, etc. I do the best I can with a garden, fixing my own cars instead of buying new, and trying not to buy things packaged in plastic. I also want to make most of my lawn clovers and wildflowers etc because I hate the boringness of grass and want biodiversity.

Now I think the solarpunk movement is awesome, but I feel like im just a poser. Obviously I can't leave my house and go live in a grass hut. Im also one of those people with a million hobbies, so im always doing things (and by extension, purchasing things, though usually used). I've also always been a car guy, which kind of goes against the whole eco thing. Though I do pretty much only drive smaller cars. I wont buy electric until they are analog and disconnected from any sort of internet.

I feel like there's many out there like me who just feel they wont make any difference anyways so they don't get as involved. But what other things can someone like me do? I've thought about some panels on the house to potentially run small servers off of, but that's pretty much it

This past DC Climate Week, we linked up with founders, artists and visionaries who are reimagining how we move, grow, create, and care for our world. We talked, biked, toured rooftops, and reflected on how far we’ve come—and where we’re headed next. This issue is a preview of what’s bubbling beneath the surface of the DMV’s solarpunk movement.

Grassy trams are better than dead asphalt, but monoculture lawns are still not the best. I'm not sure what the best translation of the official name would be, but I guess meadowy tram would fit. Much lower maintenance and increased resilience to heat and dryness are nice bonuses.

This is a 1km stretch of tramline 13 running through a park in Helsinki, Finland.

What's more solarpunk than using old hardware destined for the dump to host a cool website?

The German - French TV Broadcaster is doing a documentary series about sustainability of cities.

The Audio is only in German and French, but English Subtitles are available. It is nice to watch.

Mass timer buildings are prefabricated structures made of (hopefully renewable) wood. The pieces are made in a factory and then able to be quickly constructed together on-site.

This can hopefully greatly reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from producing a building. The cost of producing buildings in this method is also going down. Additionally, these mass timer buildings are typically more dense than single family homes, which can lead to more sustainable communities.

Just finished the stellarbook, by James Arbib and Tony Seba (from RethinkX). They make a very interesting case on how we can move from our current extractive societies to one of abundance. It touches on many themes that are well known in the solar punk community, still it brought together a clear overview and model of where we are now and how to get to a better world.

I was wondering if anyone here has read it as well. And what your take is.

Sod is the upper layer of soil held together by (usually grass) roots. It was used as a building material, in a similar way to soilbags.

Hello! I wanted to do my first project with solar panels and I don't know where to start.

I was thinking of make some transportable solar panel with a couple of outlets where it will be capable of charging cellphones or laptops, not sure if with a battery or not.

Any recommendations of easy to follow guides?

Edit: Also, what do I need to do a standard plug "type I" (10 A, 220V)

Basically, I was thinking of maybe creating capsule hotels/hostels/boarding houses that are engineered for social/communal living, but zoning wise it is likely extremely difficult. This was just an idea, but I was wondering if there are any communities (leftist/libertarian[international, not USA]/socialist/anarchist) that focus on hacking zoning codes/laws to try to help the poor/homeless/oppressed/fight against NIMBYs. This would be for the US as far as my concerns. But others can absolutely chime in.

Welcome to the 2025 edition of the collaborative solarpunk art project! This year’s theme is Life of Learning, focusing on education, teaching, mentorship and research in a better climate future!

The goal of the project is to welcome everyone to collaborate together, share ideas and get inspired by each others’ works! This is not a contest - there are no prizes and no winners, outside of everything we learn from each other and the visions of a better world we create!

Among the flood of AI-generated content all over the Internet it’s hard to imagine a coherent vision of a better future, especially one hopeful in the face of the Climate Catastrophe.

I believe that to be able to create a sustainable civilization and stop destroying the planet we need to find a new story for ourselves. Such a story could only be crafted by humans, as no neural network is capable of creating coherent symbols for values absent from our mainstream, Western culture.

For the last few years I witnessed many well-meaning writers and academics try to write about a better climate future - be it under a name of Solarpunk or any other - and struggle to find art illustrating their work. It saddened me to see them turn to the most thoughtless AI-generated images, trees growing from concrete buildings - just to represent something.

I hope that with this Library, thanks to the artists who generously donated their art under copyleft licenses, we will be able to go towards meaningful symbols, planting them like signposts towards a better future.

For anyone stuck looking for a story idea, good conflict or tension in a realistic near-future setting, I hope that the seeds will kickstart their creativity. Be sure to also check out the Solarpunk Prompts podcast by the awesome tomasino for even more writing inspirations!

The best daily transportation isn't a car/truck at all, but there is still some need for freight/hauling to be done.

I'm posting because this truck feels like the opposite of modern trucks. I mean the CyberTruck (literally the icon of Cyberpunk dystopia) and other trucks like Rivian are:

• extremely anti-right to repair
• brag about their 0-60 (instead of practicality/efficiency)
• a privacy nightmare
• massive in size
• have high prices across the board
• are absolutely crammed with manadory luxury features like air conditioned seats or motorized trunks

This truck, with manual roll-up windows, seems to be about getting work done. Its not trying to be the biggest baddest fastest most-techo-advanced thing money can buy.

I bet, in less than 1 year, hobbyists will have solar panel array mounted on the back of these.

At Panchsheel Inter College in Uttar Pradesh, students now study inside a new school wing built not from concrete or traditional brick, but from sugarcane. The innovation was born at the University of East London (UEL) and its creators argue it could reshape how buildings are made and how the planet pays for it.

Sugarcrete combines the fibrous residues of sugarcane, called bagasse, with sand and mineral binders to produce lightweight, interlocking blocks. Lab tests show that Sugarcrete has strong fire resistance, acoustic dampening, and thermal insulation properties. It’s been tested to industrial standards and passed with flying colors. In terms of climate impact, the material is a standout. It’s six times less carbon-intensive than standard bricks, and twenty times less than concrete, by some estimates.

Yet the real excitement doesn’t only come from what Sugarcrete is, but how it’s made and used. It is purposely ‘open access’ in order to establish partnerships to produce new bio-waste-based construction materials where sugarcane is grown. Unlike conventional building materials locked behind patents, Sugarcrete can be made by anyone with the right ingredients and basic manufacturing tools. That choice decentralizes construction innovation, allowing small-scale producers — especially in the Global South — to lead.

I commissioned Seth Rutledge to make concept art for a Solarpunk neighbourhood and I think it is just right. Walkable and bikable streets. Solarpanels on the roof and places you can just sit and chill.

Feel free to use the image, if you need stock footage for presentations and such. reference the original artist of course.

(I also have a higher resolution file I can provide)

I joined Mastodon over on mastodon.social, which has served me well. But I’d like to migrate to another instance that is more tailored to my interests. Are there any particular instances that run on clean energy and are focused more around ecology and sustainability?

I don't know if this is the right community to post this video, but the community they are (building) seems very solarpunk to me!