The University of Colorado describes Solarpunk more as a movement that strives for a climate-neutral future. To this end, it uses art and literature, for example, to create a utopia - in other words, it develops ideas about what a sustainable society could look like.
Utopia.de: “In this still fictitious world, people have actually already achieved what is still the big goal for us by 2050: Net Zero. To achieve this, humanity would have to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to zero as far as possible. This means that fossil fuels would have to play a subordinate role in the future. This is the only way to effectively reduce climate-damaging greenhouse gases. In the future world of Solarpunk, solar or wind power have therefore long since taken the place that oil or gas still occupy in the real world.”
heise.de: “This is probably not a really seductive subject for literary utopias.It becomes interesting where such future designs build bridges, where they bring together the present and the future.”
Vice magazine: Solarpunk Is Not About Pretty Aesthetics. It's About the End of Capitalism. At its core, and despite its appropriation, Solarpunk imagines a radically different societal and economic structure.