9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You may have noticed[br]that I'm wearing two different shoes.

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It probably looks funny --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it definitely feels funny

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but I wanted to make a point.

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Let's say my left shoe corresponds[br]to [a] sustainable footprint,

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meaning we humans consume[br]less natural resources

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than our planet can regenerate,

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and emit less carbon dioxide[br]than our forests and ocean can reabsorb.

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That's a stable and healthy condition.

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Today's situation[br]is more [like] my other shoe.

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It's way oversized.

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On the second of August in 2017,

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we have already consumed[br]all resources our planet can regenerate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this year.

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This is like spending all your money[br]until the eighteenth of a month,

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and then needing a credit from the bank[br]for the rest of the time.

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For sure you can do this[br]for some months in a row,

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but if you don't change your behavior,

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soon or later you will[br]run into big problems.

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We all know the devastating effects[br]of this excessive exploitation.

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Global warming,

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rising of the sea levels,

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melting of the glaciers and polar ice,

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increasingly extreme climate patterns

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and more.

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The enormity of this problem[br]really frustrates me.

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What frustrates me even more[br]is that there are solutions to this,

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but we keep doing things[br]like we always did.

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Today I want to share with you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how a new solar technology can contribute

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to [the] sustainable future of buildings.

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Buildings consume about 40 percent[br]of our total energy demand,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so tackling this consumption[br]would reduce our climate emissions.

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A building designed along[br]sustainable principles

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can produce all the power[br]it needs by itself.

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To achieve this you first have to reduce[br]the consumption as much as possible

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by using well-insulated walls[br]or windows for instance.

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These technologies[br]are commercially available.

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Then you need energy[br]for warm water and heating.

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You can get this in a renewable[br]way from the sun,

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through solar thermal installations

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or from the ground and air[br]with heat pumps.

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All of these technologies are available.

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Then you are left[br]with the need for electricity.

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In principle,

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there are several ways[br]to get renewable electricity,

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but how many buildings do you know

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which have a windmill on the roof,

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or a water power plant in the garden?

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Probably not so many

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because usually it doesn't make sense.

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But the sun provides abundant[br]energy to our roofs and façades.

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The potential to harvest this energy[br]on our building's surface is enormous.

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Let's take Europe as an example.

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If you would utilize all areas which have[br]a nice orientation to the sun

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and they're not overly shaded,

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the power generated[br]by photovoltaics

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would correspond to about 30 percent[br]of our total energy demand,

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but today's photovoltaics[br]have some issues.

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They do offer a good[br]cost-performance ratio,

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but they aren't really flexible[br]in terms of their design

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and this makes aesthetics a challenge.

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People often imaging pictures like this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when thinking about[br]solar cells on buildings.

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This may work for solar farms,

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but when you think of buildings,

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of streets,

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of architecture,

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aesthetics does matter.

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This is the reason why we don't see[br]many solar cells on buildings today.

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They just don't match.

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Our team is working on a totally[br]different solar cell technology.

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It's just called organic photovoltaics,

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or OPV.

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The term organic describes

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that the material used[br]for light absorption

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and charge transport

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are mainly based on the element carbon,

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and not on metals.

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We utilize the mixture of a polymer,

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which is set up by different[br]repeating units,

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like the pearls in a pearl chain,

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and a small molecule which has[br]the shape of a football

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and is called fullerene.

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These two compounds are mixed[br]and dissolved to become an ink,

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and like ink,

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they can be printed with simple[br]printing techniques

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like slot-die coating

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in a continuous roll-to-roll process[br]on flexible substrates.

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The resulting thin later

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is the active layer absorbing[br]the energy of the sun.

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This active layer is extremely effective.

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You only need a layer thickness[br]of 0.2 micrometers

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to absorb the energy of the sun.

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This is 100 times thinner[br]than a human hair.

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To give you another example,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
take one kilogram of the basic polymer

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and use it to formulate the active ink.

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With this amount of ink,

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you can print a solar cell[br]the size of a complete football field.

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So OPV is extremely material efficient,

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which I think is a crucial thing[br]when talking about sustainability.

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After the printing process,

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you can have a solar module

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which can look like this ...

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it looks a bit like a plastic foil,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and actually has many of its features.

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It's lightweight ...

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it's bendable ...

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and it's semi-transparent.

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But it can harvest [the] energy[br]of the sun outdoors

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and also of this indoor light,

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as you can see with this small,[br]illuminated LED.

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You can use it in its plastic form

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and take advantage of its low weight[br]and it's bendability.

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The first is important when thinking[br]about buildings in warmer regions.

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Here, the roofs are not designed[br]to bear additionally heavy loads.

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They aren't designed for snow[br]in winter for instance,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so heavy silicon solar cells[br]cannot be used for light harvesting,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but these lightweight solar foils[br]are very well suited.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The bendability is important

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if you want to combine the solar cell[br]with membrane architecture.

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Imagine the cells of the Sydney[br]Opera as power plants.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Alternatively, you can[br]combine the solar foils

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with conventional construction[br]materials like glass.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Many glass [façade] elements[br]contain a [foil] anyways

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to create laminated safety glass.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's not a big deal to add[br]a second foil in the production process,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but then the façade element[br]contains the solar cell

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and can produce electricity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Besides looking nice,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these integrated solar cells come along[br]with two more important benefits.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Do you remember the solar cells[br]attached the roof I showed before?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In this case,

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we install the roof first

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and as a second layer,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the solar cell.

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This is adding on [the] installation cost.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the case of integrated solar cells,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at the site of construction,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
only one element is installed,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
being at the same time[br]the envelope of the building

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the solar cell.

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Besides saving on your installation costs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this also saves resources

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because the two functions[br]are combined into one element.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Earlier I talked about optics.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I really like this solar pattern,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
maybe you have different taste[br]or different design needs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
No problem.

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With the printing process,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the solar cell can change[br]its shape and design very easily.

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This will give the flexibility[br]to architects,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to planners and building owners

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to integrate this electricty-producing[br]technology as they wish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I want to stress that this is not[br]just happening in the labs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It will take seven more years[br]to get to mass adoption,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but we are at the edge[br]of commercialization,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
meaning there are several companies[br]out there with production lines.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They are scaling up their capacities

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and so are we with the inks.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This smaller footprint[br]is much more comfortable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is the right size,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the right scale.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have to come back to the right scale[br]when it comes to energy consumption.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And making buildings carbon neutral[br]is an important part here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In Europe,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we have the goal to decarbonize[br]our buildings [stock] until 2050.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I hope organic photovoltaics[br]will be a big part of this.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here are a couple of examples.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is the first commercial installation[br]of fully printed organic solar cells.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Commercial means that the solar cells[br]were printed on industrial equipment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The so-called solar trees are part[br]of the German pavilion

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at the World Expo in Milan in 2015.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They provided shading during the day

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and electricity for[br]the lighting in evening.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You may wonder why this hexagonal shape[br]was chosen for the solar cells.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Easy answer:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the architects wanted to have[br]a specific shading pattern on the floor

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and asked for it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and then it was printed as requested.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Being far from a real project,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this free-form installation hooked[br]the imagination of the visiting architects

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
much more than we expected.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This other application[br]is closer to the projects

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and applications we are targeting.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In an office building[br]in Sao Paulo, Brazil,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
semi-transparent OPV panels[br]are integrated into the glass façade,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
serving different needs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
First, they provided shading[br]for the meeting rooms behind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Second, the logo of the company[br]is displayed in an innovative way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And of course electricity is produced,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
reducing the energy of the building.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is pointing towards a future

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where buildings are no longer[br]energy consumers,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but energy providers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I want to see solar cells[br]seamlessly integrated

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into our building shells

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be both resource-efficient[br]and a pleasure to look at.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For roofs, silicon solar cells[br]will often continue to be a good solution,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but to exploit the potential[br]of all façades in other areas,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
such as sem-transparent areas,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
curved surfaces

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and shadings,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I believe organic photovoltaics[br]can offer a significant contribution

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they can be made in any form[br]architects and planners will want them to.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)