Maybe controversial opinion but my favorite trope in solarpunk is the “building a better world with or without your permission”…
Maybe controversial opinion but my favorite trope in solarpunk is the “building a better world with or without your permission” rather than stories focusing on the end goal of solarpunk.
My first solarpunk collection I read was Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation and The Boston Hearth Project by T.X. Watson is not only my favorite story in that book specifically, but probably my favorite solarpunk story of all time. (So far)
It’s told in an essay style, beginning with email correspondence about a college essay and the security of information sent to the college, due to the illegal nature of the story. In the essay part, the writer discusses how they use tech to break into The Hale Center, a self supported smart building that houses its own closed ecosystem. It’s supposed to be used for wealthy business men, but the main characters have a better use for it. The story is set in Massachusetts, and it discusses the deaths of homeless people due to polar vortices caused by climate change, and basically the story is about them taking over the building to house the homeless population.
It’s a really great read and obviously i recommend it. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I really think it embodies solarpunk perfectly with both the high tech part of the building (and the tech used by the characters) and the -punk part of repurposing a building meant for the wealthy for the people who need it most.