Arizona State University commissioned and published for free “The Weight of Light” an anthology of science fiction tales that imagines a future of humanity powered entirely by solar energy.
THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT: IMAGINING THE SOLAR FUTURE
Renewable energy, including solar power, is now central to a sustainable and clean energy future: photovoltaic, wind power and other sources have already been called to increase their production in the near future to replace fossil fuel generation, in energy strategies outlined both by individual nations and by international bodies.
Researchers and photovoltaic companies around the world therefore work to imagine the best ways to achieve these goals, from multiple points of view, including technological development, integration between large and small producers, smart grids and urban planning.
Arizona State University tried a peculiar approach, the literary one: it commissioned and published for free “The Weight of Light”, an anthology of science fiction tales that imagines a future of humanity powered entirely by solar energy. The initiative is part of a broader editorial program of the Center for Science and the Imagination, which in recent years has already produced similar collections on the themes of climate change and the space frontier.
In April last year, several working groups were asked to imagine future worlds fed entirely by the energy of the Sun: four different stories were derived from the different visions that emerged, written by the pens of as many science fiction authors, Brenda Cooper, Andrew Dana Hudson, Cat Rambo and Corey S. Pressman. Each corresponds to a different housing dimension: large urban, small urban, large rural, small rural.
The story “For the Snake of Power” by Brenda Cooper, set in Phoenix, Arizona, imagines the creation of a huge snake-like coverage of the city’s canals, whose scales are made up of solar panels that make electricity available for all and whose shadow allows the inhabitants, from the number in tumultuous growth, to be able to stay outdoors without being overwhelmed by the scorching heat of the desert city.
“Under the Grid” di Andrew Dana Hudson portrays the United States, now poisoned by fossil fuels, transformed into a technological development laboratory financed by Europeans and Chinese, to create local smart grids that can satisfy energy demand in a sustainable way, to emphasize how the energy policy of the future will be increasingly glocal.
In “Big Rural” by Cat Rambo, to prevent a rural town and its surroundings from being dismantled to make room for a solar-powered system on the ground, a solution is chosen that apparently takes up more space but actually allows us to respect the destination of land use, mainly cereal cultivation: photovoltaic raised above ground.
Finally, “Divided Light” by Corey S. Pressman plays on the fantasy of a dome of solar panels that encapsulates the city, protecting it from a climate that is now out of control: the panels have the ability to pass from transparent to opaque, thus generating shadow as they continue to provide economic energy to the inhabitants.
EF Solare Italy, as the leading photovoltaic operator in Italy, positions itself as a technological leader of the consolidation and growth of the industry through operational excellence, technological innovation and the development of new plants.