Urbanization of SolarPower

The Solarcity Berlin Masterplan between premises and promises

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic research on the Solarcity Berlin Masterplan and explores what is the underlying notion of the city and how a solar turn is pictured. I look at thepremises and promises that the masterplan makes by bringing together certain ontologies of the city and visions of the solar turn. To situate the Masterplan in a context of low carbon transitions, I discuss the imaginations through which the sun as energy becomes an urban infrastructure. I argue that by holding on to certain aspects, this transformation opens up a tension between centrality and decentralisation, individual and community. My research explores the visions of the future and promises associated with such an urbanisation of the sun and discusses the idea of solarity – as thinking solar and solidarity together – while understanding power as energy and political power at the same time.