WEBVTT

00:00:01.994 --> 00:00:04.761
You may have noticed
that I'm wearing two different shoes.

00:00:06.776 --> 00:00:08.518
It probably looks funny --

00:00:08.518 --> 00:00:10.192
it definitely feels funny --

00:00:10.192 --> 00:00:11.872
but I wanted to make a point.

00:00:12.698 --> 00:00:16.964
Let's say my left shoe corresponds
to a sustainable footprint,

00:00:16.964 --> 00:00:20.254
meaning we humans consume
less natural resources

00:00:20.254 --> 00:00:22.501
than our planet can regenerate,

00:00:22.501 --> 00:00:27.013
and emit less carbon dioxide
than our forests and ocean can reabsorb.

00:00:27.532 --> 00:00:29.568
That's a stable and healthy condition.

00:00:30.486 --> 00:00:33.487
Today's situation
is more [like] my other shoe.

00:00:33.777 --> 00:00:35.324
It's way oversized.

00:00:36.070 --> 00:00:39.309
At the second of August in 2017,

00:00:39.309 --> 00:00:41.574
we have already consumed all resources

00:00:41.574 --> 00:00:43.664
our planet can regenerate this year.

00:00:44.844 --> 00:00:48.355
This is like spending all your money
until the [eighteenth] of a month,

00:00:48.355 --> 00:00:51.477
and then needing a credit
from the bank for the rest of the time.

00:00:51.656 --> 00:00:53.992
For sure you can do this
for some months in a row,

00:00:53.992 --> 00:00:55.939
but if you don't change your behavior,

00:00:55.939 --> 00:00:58.436
sooner or later you will
run into big problems.

00:00:59.291 --> 00:01:03.936
We all know the devastating effects
of this excessive exploitation:

00:01:03.936 --> 00:01:05.409
global warming,

00:01:05.409 --> 00:01:07.216
rising of the sea levels,

00:01:07.216 --> 00:01:09.546
melting of the glaciers and polar ice,

00:01:09.546 --> 00:01:12.117
increasingly extreme climate patterns

00:01:12.117 --> 00:01:13.118
and more.

00:01:14.528 --> 00:01:17.190
The enormity of this problem
really frustrates me.

00:01:18.418 --> 00:01:21.761
What frustrates me even more
is that there are solutions to this,

00:01:21.761 --> 00:01:24.114
but we keep doing things
like we always did.

00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:26.477
Today I want to share with you

00:01:26.477 --> 00:01:29.263
how a new solar technology can contribute

00:01:29.263 --> 00:01:31.311
to a sustainable future of buildings.

00:01:32.624 --> 00:01:36.785
Buildings consume about 40 percent
of our total energy demand,

00:01:36.785 --> 00:01:38.256
so tackling this consumption

00:01:38.256 --> 00:01:40.846
would significantly reduce
our climate emissions.

00:01:41.476 --> 00:01:43.818
A building designed
along sustainable principle

00:01:43.818 --> 00:01:46.202
can produce all the power
it needs by itself.

00:01:46.868 --> 00:01:47.909
To achieve this,

00:01:47.909 --> 00:01:51.509
you first have to reduce
the consumption as much as possible

00:01:51.509 --> 00:01:54.402
by using well-insulated walls
or windows for instance.

00:01:54.773 --> 00:01:56.971
These technologies
are commercially available.

00:01:57.845 --> 00:02:00.483
Then you need energy
for warm water and heating.

00:02:01.130 --> 00:02:03.994
You can get this in a renewable
way from the sun

00:02:03.994 --> 00:02:05.728
through solar thermal installations

00:02:05.728 --> 00:02:07.869
or from the ground and air
with heat pumps.

00:02:08.023 --> 00:02:09.983
All of these technologies are available.

00:02:11.020 --> 00:02:13.371
Then you are left
with the need for electricity.

00:02:14.001 --> 00:02:14.997
In principle,

00:02:14.997 --> 00:02:17.916
there are several ways
to get renewable electricity,

00:02:17.916 --> 00:02:19.560
but how many buildings do you know

00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:21.199
which have a windmill on the roof,

00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.162
or a water power plant in the garden?

00:02:23.578 --> 00:02:26.391
Probably not so many because
usually it doesn't make sense.

00:02:26.653 --> 00:02:30.150
But the sun provides abundant
energy to our roofs and façades.

00:02:31.390 --> 00:02:35.840
The potential to harvest this energy
at our buildings' surfaces is enormous.

00:02:36.763 --> 00:02:38.566
Let's take Europe as an example.

00:02:39.206 --> 00:02:43.641
If you would utilize all areas
which have a nice orientation to the sun

00:02:43.641 --> 00:02:45.347
and they're not overly shaded,

00:02:45.347 --> 00:02:48.378
the power generated
by photovoltaics

00:02:48.378 --> 00:02:51.843
would correspond to about 30 percent
of our total energy demand.

00:02:52.303 --> 00:02:54.871
But today's photovoltaics
have some issues.

00:02:55.746 --> 00:02:58.276
They do offer a good
cost-performance ratio,

00:02:58.276 --> 00:03:00.966
but they aren't really flexible
in terms of their design,

00:03:00.966 --> 00:03:02.789
and this makes aesthetics a challenge.

00:03:03.235 --> 00:03:05.710
People often imagine pictures like this

00:03:05.710 --> 00:03:07.907
when thinking about
solar cells on buildings.

00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:09.986
This may work for solar farms,

00:03:09.986 --> 00:03:11.539
but when you think of buildings,

00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:12.542
of streets,

00:03:12.542 --> 00:03:13.572
of architecture,

00:03:13.572 --> 00:03:14.994
aesthetics does matter.

00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.067
This is the reason why we don't see
many solar cells on buildings today.

00:03:19.567 --> 00:03:20.892
They just don't match.

00:03:21.861 --> 00:03:25.394
Our team is working on a totally
different solar cell technology.

00:03:26.177 --> 00:03:28.461
It's just called organic photovoltaics,

00:03:28.461 --> 00:03:29.458
or OPV.

00:03:29.730 --> 00:03:31.480
The term organic describes

00:03:31.480 --> 00:03:33.995
that the material used
for light absorption

00:03:33.995 --> 00:03:35.414
and charge transport

00:03:35.414 --> 00:03:37.531
are mainly based on the element carbon,

00:03:37.531 --> 00:03:38.726
and not on metals.

00:03:39.339 --> 00:03:42.185
We utilize the mixture of a polymer

00:03:42.185 --> 00:03:44.811
which is set up by different
repeating units,

00:03:44.811 --> 00:03:46.864
like the pearls in a pearl chain,

00:03:46.864 --> 00:03:49.786
and a small molecule
which has the shape of a football

00:03:49.786 --> 00:03:51.131
and is called fullerene.

00:03:51.906 --> 00:03:55.837
These two compounds are mixed
and dissolved to become an ink.

00:03:56.437 --> 00:03:57.487
And like ink,

00:03:57.487 --> 00:04:02.190
they can be printed with simple
printing techniques like slot-die coating

00:04:02.190 --> 00:04:06.001
in a continuous roll-to-roll process
on flexible substrates.

00:04:06.855 --> 00:04:08.244
The resulting thin layer

00:04:08.244 --> 00:04:11.077
is the active layer absorbing
the energy of the sun.

00:04:12.167 --> 00:04:14.668
This active layer is extremely effective.

00:04:15.522 --> 00:04:19.075
You only need a layer thickness
of 0.2 micrometers

00:04:19.075 --> 00:04:20.837
to absorb the energy of the sun.

00:04:21.169 --> 00:04:23.767
This is 100 times thinner
than a human hair.

00:04:24.876 --> 00:04:26.943
To give you another example,

00:04:26.943 --> 00:04:29.663
take one kilogram of the basic polymer

00:04:29.663 --> 00:04:31.874
and use it to formulate the active ink.

00:04:32.630 --> 00:04:34.062
With this amount of ink,

00:04:34.062 --> 00:04:38.068
you can print a solar cell
the size of a complete football field.

00:04:39.242 --> 00:04:43.005
So OPV is extremely material efficient,

00:04:43.005 --> 00:04:46.295
which I think is a crucial thing
when talking about sustainability.

00:04:47.354 --> 00:04:49.375
After the printing process,

00:04:49.375 --> 00:04:50.778
you can have a solar module

00:04:50.778 --> 00:04:53.195
which could look like this ...

00:04:53.195 --> 00:04:55.178
it looks a bit like a plastic foil,

00:04:55.178 --> 00:04:57.058
and actually has many of its features.

00:04:57.736 --> 00:05:00.629
It's lightweight ...

00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:02.602
it's bendable ...

00:05:02.602 --> 00:05:04.565
and it's semitransparent.

00:05:07.101 --> 00:05:09.504
But it can harvest the energy
of the sun outdoors

00:05:09.504 --> 00:05:11.052
and also of this indoor light,

00:05:11.052 --> 00:05:13.918
as you can see with this small,
illuminated LED.

00:05:14.975 --> 00:05:16.963
You can use it in its plastic form

00:05:16.963 --> 00:05:20.029
and take advantage of its low weight
and it's bendability.

00:05:21.081 --> 00:05:24.570
The first is important when thinking
about buildings in warmer regions.

00:05:25.325 --> 00:05:28.462
Here, the roofs are not designed
to bear additionally heavy loads.

00:05:28.981 --> 00:05:31.787
They aren't designed for snow
in winter for instance,

00:05:31.787 --> 00:05:35.978
so heavy silicon solar cells
cannot be used for light harvesting,

00:05:35.978 --> 00:05:38.987
but these lightweight solar foils
are very well suited.

00:05:40.179 --> 00:05:42.656
The bendability is important

00:05:42.656 --> 00:05:46.233
if you want to combine the solar cell
with membrane architecture.

00:05:46.802 --> 00:05:50.383
Imagine the cells of the Sydney
Opera as power plants.

00:05:50.932 --> 00:05:53.403
Alternatively, you can
combine the solar foils

00:05:53.403 --> 00:05:55.944
with conventional construction
materials like glass.

00:05:56.594 --> 00:05:59.008
Many glass façade elements
contain a foil anyway

00:05:59.008 --> 00:06:00.701
to create laminated safety glass.

00:06:01.148 --> 00:06:04.775
It's not a big deal to add
a second foil in the production process,

00:06:04.775 --> 00:06:07.710
but then the façade element
contains the solar cell

00:06:07.710 --> 00:06:09.572
and can produce electricity.

00:06:11.155 --> 00:06:12.813
Besides looking nice,

00:06:12.813 --> 00:06:16.990
these integrated solar cells come along
with two more important benefits.

00:06:17.738 --> 00:06:21.052
Do you remember the solar cell
attached a roof I showed before?

00:06:21.331 --> 00:06:22.597
In this case,

00:06:22.597 --> 00:06:24.071
we install the roof first,

00:06:24.071 --> 00:06:25.121
and as a second layer,

00:06:25.121 --> 00:06:26.123
the solar cell.

00:06:26.123 --> 00:06:28.121
This is adding on your installation costs.

00:06:28.508 --> 00:06:30.668
In the case of integrated solar cells,

00:06:30.668 --> 00:06:32.151
at the site of construction,

00:06:32.151 --> 00:06:34.220
only one element is installed,

00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.852
being at the same time
the envelope of the building

00:06:36.852 --> 00:06:37.959
and the solar cell.

00:06:38.815 --> 00:06:40.853
Besides saving on your installation costs,

00:06:40.853 --> 00:06:42.798
this also saves resources

00:06:42.798 --> 00:06:46.086
because the two functions
are combined into one element.

00:06:46.383 --> 00:06:48.138
Earlier, I've talked about optics.

00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:50.486
I really like this solar panel --

00:06:50.486 --> 00:06:53.407
maybe you have different taste
or different design needs.

00:06:54.236 --> 00:06:55.254
No problem.

00:06:55.254 --> 00:06:56.750
With the printing process,

00:06:56.750 --> 00:07:01.025
the solar cell can change
its shape and design very easily.

00:07:01.574 --> 00:07:04.112
This will give the flexibility
to architects,

00:07:04.112 --> 00:07:06.171
to planners and building owners

00:07:06.171 --> 00:07:09.844
to integrate this electricty-producing
technology as they wish.

00:07:15.513 --> 00:07:18.409
I want to stress that this is not
just happening in the labs.

00:07:18.651 --> 00:07:21.422
It will take seven more years
to get to mass adoption,

00:07:21.422 --> 00:07:24.837
but we are at the edge
of commercialization,

00:07:24.837 --> 00:07:28.145
meaning there are several companies
out there with production lines.

00:07:28.665 --> 00:07:30.638
They are scaling up their capacities,

00:07:30.638 --> 00:07:32.325
and so are we with the inks.

00:07:36.685 --> 00:07:37.685
(Shoe drops)

00:07:41.037 --> 00:07:43.472
This smaller footprint
is much more comfortable.

00:07:43.872 --> 00:07:44.871
(Laughter)

00:07:45.150 --> 00:07:46.515
It is the right size,

00:07:46.515 --> 00:07:47.653
the right scale.

00:07:48.032 --> 00:07:51.998
We have to come back to the right scale
when it comes to energy consumption.

00:07:52.654 --> 00:07:55.737
And making buildings carbon-neutral
is an important part here.

00:07:56.350 --> 00:07:57.347
In Europe,

00:07:57.347 --> 00:08:00.765
we have the goal to decarbonize
our building stock until 2050.

00:08:01.324 --> 00:08:04.596
I hope organic photovoltaics
will be a big part of this.

00:08:05.962 --> 00:08:07.668
Here are a couple of examples.

00:08:08.171 --> 00:08:12.618
This is the first commercial installation
of fully printed organic solar cells.

00:08:13.411 --> 00:08:16.976
Commercial means that the solar cells
were printed on industrial equipment.

00:08:18.038 --> 00:08:21.408
The so-called "solar trees"
were part of the German pavilion

00:08:21.408 --> 00:08:23.808
at the World Expo in Milan in 2015.

00:08:24.628 --> 00:08:26.900
They provided shading during the day

00:08:26.900 --> 00:08:29.171
and electricity for
the lighting in the evening.

00:08:29.780 --> 00:08:33.336
You may wonder why this hexagonal shape
was chosen for the solar cells.

00:08:33.744 --> 00:08:35.060
Easy answer:

00:08:35.060 --> 00:08:38.468
the architects wanted to have
a specific shading pattern on the floor

00:08:38.468 --> 00:08:39.757
and asked for it,

00:08:39.757 --> 00:08:41.624
and then it was printed as requested.

00:08:42.348 --> 00:08:44.151
Being far from a real product,

00:08:44.151 --> 00:08:47.864
this free-form installation hooked
the imagination of the visiting architects

00:08:47.864 --> 00:08:49.337
much more than we expected.

00:08:49.862 --> 00:08:52.827
This other application
is closer to the projects

00:08:52.827 --> 00:08:54.740
and applications we are targeting.

00:08:55.060 --> 00:08:57.968
In an office building
in São Paulo, Brazil,

00:08:57.968 --> 00:09:01.736
semitransparent OPV panels
are integrated into the glass façade,

00:09:01.736 --> 00:09:03.009
serving different needs.

00:09:03.550 --> 00:09:06.798
First, they provided shading
for the meeting rooms behind.

00:09:07.686 --> 00:09:12.406
Second, the logo of the company
is displayed in an innovative way.

00:09:12.708 --> 00:09:14.557
And of course electricity is produced,

00:09:14.557 --> 00:09:16.880
reducing the energy footprint
of the building.

00:09:17.632 --> 00:09:19.570
This is pointing towards a future

00:09:19.570 --> 00:09:21.981
where buildings are no longer
energy consumers,

00:09:21.981 --> 00:09:23.397
but energy providers.

00:09:24.056 --> 00:09:26.979
I want to see solar cells
seamlessly integrated

00:09:26.979 --> 00:09:28.881
into our building shells

00:09:28.881 --> 00:09:31.933
to be both resource-efficient
and a pleasure to look at.

00:09:32.676 --> 00:09:36.789
For roofs, silicon solar cells
will often continue to be a good solution.

00:09:37.199 --> 00:09:41.714
But to exploit the potential
of all façades and other areas,

00:09:41.714 --> 00:09:44.021
such as semitransparent areas,

00:09:44.021 --> 00:09:45.202
curved surfaces

00:09:45.202 --> 00:09:46.704
and shadings,

00:09:46.704 --> 00:09:51.669
I believe organic photovoltaics
can offer a significant contribution,

00:09:51.669 --> 00:09:56.873
and they can be made in any form
architects and planners will want them to.

00:09:57.425 --> 00:09:58.442
Thank you.

00:09:58.729 --> 00:10:00.436
(Applause)