New Books in Critical Theory Myles Lennon, "Subjects of the Sun: Solar Energy in the Shadows of Racial Capitalism" (Duke UP, 2025)
Energy Policy Retrofit Failure
- Myles Lennon shares how working on New York's Green Jobs, Green New York policy failed to meet ambitious retrofit goals.
- Despite political will and justice provisions, only about 24,000 of the targeted million retrofits were completed in five years.
Why Solar Energy's Shiny Promise Masks Deep Inequalities
Solar energy is widely celebrated as a clean and equitable solution to climate change, but Myles Lennon reveals a more complex and troubling picture.
He exposes how solar panels are often made under exploitative conditions, including forced labor in China's Xinjiang region and child labor in cobalt mining in the Congo.
Despite solar's green image, its production depends heavily on fossil fuels and creates toxic waste, disproportionately harming marginalized communities.
This disconnect is obscured by the sun's affective power — its radiant shine creates an illusion of purity and naturalness that masks the harsh realities of racial capitalism underpinning solar's supply chain.
Lennon challenges traditional Marxist commodity fetishism by showing how the sun itself, historically linked to settler colonial visions, adds a divine spectacle effect that hides the labor and exploitation behind solar technology.
Sun Aesthetic Masks Exploitation
- Solar panels are produced under exploitative conditions, including forced labor of Uyghurs in China and child labor in cobalt mining.
- The sun's visual and cultural power masks the extractive realities behind ostensibly clean solar energy.