Photovoltaic Imagination: Solar Strategies for Community Integrated Research and Graduate Training

Achieving a just transition to climate positive energy systems while meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG7) 7 of ensuring “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” will require fundamental reimagining of contempo- rary energy systems. As with other sociotechnical imaginaries, the material and discursive infrastructure that underlies these systems is both deep and expansive, challenging efforts to envision and enact alternatives. This paper describes a unique, ongoing, project between the University of Toronto, University of Edinburgh, and Concordia University that combines critical making practice, com- munity engaged research, and graduate student training to unsettle prevailing energy imaginaries through situated engagement with small-scale solar technologies. Through detailed discussion of this planned research and related work, we contribute to LIMITS re- search in transitional systems, solar imaginaries, justice, mainte- nance and repair, and graduate student pedagogy.