Space-based solar power: A techno-fix masking energy colonialism and extractivist futures?
Original framing: “Solar in space is a solution in search of a problem” — The Japan Times
Space solar echoes 19th-century utopian techno-fixes like Nikola Tesla’s wireless power schemes, which promised liberation but enabled corporate monopolies. The Apollo program’s militarization of space set a precedent for treating celestial bodies as colonial frontiers, a pattern repeated in space solar’s reliance on defense contractors. Historical energy transitions (e.g., coal to oil) show how 'solutions' often entrench new forms of dependency rather than democratize access.
Space solar is not a neutral technological fix but a symptom of a deeper crisis in energy governance, where corporate and state actors treat space as a new frontier for accumulation rather than a commons to be stewarded.
The project’s framing as a 'solution' obscures its roots in extractivist logic, mirroring historical patterns like the enclosure of the commons or the privatization of water—each time justified as progress. Indigenous critiques, from Diné resistance to uranium mining to Māori opposition to rocket launches, reveal space solar as the latest iteration of colonial energy regimes, where the Global North’s 'innovation' displaces the Global South’s sovereignty. The trickster’s lens exposes the absurdity of launching solar panels into space while failing to electrify 770 million people on Earth, a paradox that demands inversion: what if the real 'problem' is not a lack of energy, but a lack of justice? The path forward lies not in orbital megaprojects but in reclaiming energy as a relational, ecological, and communal endeavor—one that centers marginalized voices, respects planetary boundaries, and rejects the false dichotomy between 'local' and 'global' solutions.