This week, Arizona State University published The Weight of Light. The book features short science fiction, art, and essays about human futures powered by solar energy, with an upbeat, solarpunk twist. The guiding idea behind the collection is the importance of considering the how of a clean-energy transition: there are myriad decisions about ownerships, aesthetics, geography, regulation, labor, and equity issues inherent in this colossal shift, and each of these choices will have deep social, political, and environmental consequences.
The book is free to download in a variety of digital formats.
The stories, essays, and art in the collection grew out of a collaborative workshop that brought together fiction authors and illustrators with engineers, political scientists, anthropologists, futures studies scholars, and other experts.