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Rooftop solar can be torn out of capital’s hands

Decentralised solar has the potential to support co-operative, municipal
and other forms of community ownership and control. Solar power is
expanding across the global south, growing faster in China, India and
Brazil than in older, richer solar developers like the US, Japan and
Germany.

Big, corporate-owned solar farms now account for most of the
world’s solar capacity, but decentralised rooftop solar comes a close
second. Rooftop panels are often owned by households, especially in rich
countries, but overall are more likely to be owned by businesses – energy
companies that lease the rooftops, or industrial firms that generate
electricity for their own use.

Nevertheless, I will argue here, because of
its scale and simplicity, decentralised solar has the potential to support
co-operative, municipal and other forms of community ownership and control.
It can play a role in struggles to supercede the domination of capital with
a socially just society, and to forestall disastrous climate change.

 Ecologist 7th May 2025, https://theecologist.org/2025/may/07/rooftop-solar-can-be-torn-out-capitals-hands

May 8, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable