Solar Peripheries

→ Gran Canaria, 2025

The sun and its exploitation have been a fundamental force in shaping the urbanization of the Canary Islands. Tanned skin and the plastic membranes of greenhouses extend across the coasts of Gran Canaria in pursuit of solar radiation. These are expressions of agricultural and touristic monocultures that share and compete for the island’s limited geography. While much of the coastline lies beneath the translucent cover of greenhouses, up to a third could be occupied by the four million tourists who visit the island each year, all seeking the greatest possible exposure to the sun.

Greenhouses embody a paradox. They capture solar energy through thin films derived from petrochemical processes. These infrastructures function as energy geographies, linking Gran Canaria to global systems of production and distribution, while the island absorbs the environmental costs tied to this exploitation. In this way, the territory reveals tensions between fossil dependence and the promise of renewable energy, often through the displacement of environmental burdens onto peripheral regions. Greenhouse agriculture becomes a cautionary example of how a territorial model can be built around the sun in insular contexts.

As this model begins to fracture and shifts to other sun-rich regions in search of cheaper production, the sun reappears as the promise of a new future. Today, under the banner of energy autonomy, agricultural land is being transformed into a new solar monoculture in the form of photovoltaic fields. Financial incentives and large investments return to the island as a third layer that spreads across the territory in search of sunlight. These solar infrastructures are often classified as being of general interest, allowing them to bypass conventional planning frameworks and occupy large areas in the name of ecological transition. There is no longer a need to export bananas or winter tomatoes. The value of the sun is now captured directly on site.

Solar energy is essential to the energy transition, but its implementation is not neutral. As a finite and geographically peripheral territory, the island exposes the contradictions between self-sufficiency and energy dependency, and invites reflection on the territorial models that must accompany a just ecological transition.

Photography: Sara Cuerdo

Project comissioned by the 17th Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism 2025. Curators Miguel Ramón, Ander Bados.