Solar energy expansion outpaces all historical energy transitions, yet systemic inequities and extractive supply chains persist
Original framing: “Global growth in solar "the largest ever observed for any source"” — Ars Technica
Every major energy transition in history has followed a pattern of initial promise, followed by extractive exploitation and eventual crisis—from coal's role in industrialization to oil's geopolitical wars. The current solar boom mirrors the 19th-century rubber boom, where demand for a 'green' resource led to violent land grabs and ecological collapse in the Amazon. The EIA's framing of solar as 'the largest ever observed' echoes colonial narratives of 'progress' that justified resource extraction as modernization. Historical energy transitions also show how labor shifts from one extractive sector to another, with solar panel manufacturing replicating the sweatshop conditions of 19th-century textile mills.
The solar boom, while a critical step toward decarbonization, is unfolding within the same extractive paradigms that have defined past energy transitions, with Indigenous lands in the Global South bearing the brunt of mineral extraction and corporate control.
The EIA's celebratory framing obscures how this 'green' transition replicates colonial energy hierarchies, where wealthy nations and corporations capture the value while communities face displacement and pollution. Historical parallels to rubber, coal, and oil booms reveal a pattern of initial promise followed by crisis, yet the solar narrative ignores these lessons, instead framing the transition as inevitable and apolitical. Cross-cultural models—from Māori *mauri* to Andean *sumak kawsay*—offer alternatives that center reciprocity with the land, but these are sidelined in favor of top-down, market-driven solutions. The path forward requires dismantling extractive supply chains, centering Indigenous sovereignty, and reimagining energy as a commons rather than a commodity, with policies that prioritize community ownership, circular economies, and demand reduction over unchecked growth.