The author starts with an analysis of heatwaves as a direct manifestation of the climate crisis in order to situate it against the ways in which heat is theorized and aestheticized. He then seeks to extract a set of solar imaginaries: he considers the sun historically through the specifics of its physical properties, as well as in the form of cultural myths and social practices. He goes on to look at the utopian potential of solar
energy: its continued inaccessibility on a mass scale, which made it an ideal vehicle for dreams of unlimited energy access, a clean resource, and a better future. However, in the face of the energy transformation, he suggests that instead of thinking about solar energy as an epochal breakthrough, it should be framed as a nexus of technology, capitalism, and nature, which is shifting over time. He also proposes an ethnography of the new phenomenon: tracing the perceptions, expectations, and desires of individuals and collectives toward solar energy – what is its place in the future we want for ourselves and others? Keywords: climate crisis, solar energy, solarism, energy transformation