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Last summer, I was hiking
through the Austrian mountains.
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And there, on top, I saw
this beautiful stone, remote hut,
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and it had solar panels on it.
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And every time I see solar panels,
I get very enthusiastic.
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It's this technology that takes sunlight,
which is free and available,
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and turns that into electricity.
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So this hut, in the middle of nowhere,
on a beautiful location,
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was self-sufficient.
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But why do solar panels
always have to be so ugly?
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(Laughter)
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My name is Marjan Van Aubel
and I'm a solar designer.
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I work in the triangle of design,
sustainability and technology.
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I strive for extreme efficiency,
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meaning that I develop materials
that expand in size
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or work with solar cells
that use the properties of colors
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to generate electricity.
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My work is in museums
all over the world, such as MoMA.
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And, I mean it all went quite well,
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but it always felt
that something was missing.
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And it was, until I read the book
called the "Solar Revolution,"
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where it says that within one hour
we receive enough sunlight
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to provide the world
with enough electricity
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for an entire year.
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One hour.
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And since then, I realized
I just want to focus on solar.
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Scientists all over the world
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have been focusing on making
solar panels more efficient and cheaper.
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So the price of solar
has dropped enormously.
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And this is because China started
producing them on a large scale.
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And also their efficiency
has increased a lot.
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They now even have an efficiency
of forty-four and a half percent.
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But if you think about
the image of solar cells,
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it's kind of stayed the same
for the last 60 years.
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It still is technology
just stacked onto something.
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And solar cells need to be much better
integrated into out environment.
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Climate change is the biggest
problem of our time.
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And we can't rely on the others --
the government, the engineers --
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to make positive changes.
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We all can contribute towards change.
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Like I said, I'm a designer,
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and I would like to change
things through design.
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Let me give you some examples of my work.
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I'm collaborating with Swarovski,
the crystal company,
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and if you cut crystals in a certain way,
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you are able to bend and direct the light
onto a certain place.
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So I use these crystals
to focus the light onto a solar panel,
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making them more efficient,
but using esthetics.
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So you take the solar crystal
with you in the light,
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there's a battery in the solar cell,
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you put it in a docking station
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and you are able to power
these chandeliers.
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So you're literally
bringing the light indoors.
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I got completely hooked on solar
when I came across this technology,
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called dye-sensitized solar cells,
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colored solar cells,
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and they are based
on photosynthesis in plants.
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Where the green chlorophyl converts
light into sugar for plants,
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these cells convert light
into electricity.
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The best thing is, they even work indoors.
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So different colors
have different efficiency,
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depending on their place
on the color spectrum.
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So, for example,
red is more efficient than blue.
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So if I hear this as a designer:
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a colored surface,
a glass colored surface,
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color that's mostly
just used for esthetics,
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now gets an extra function
and is able to harvest electricity,
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I think, where can we apply this, then?
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This is Current Table,
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where the whole table top
consists out of these colored solar cells.
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There are batteries in the legs
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where you can charge your phone
through USB ports.
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And in my work, it's always very important
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the balance between
efficiency and esthetics.
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So that's why the table is orange,
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because it is a very stable
color for indoors.
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And this is always the most
asked question I get,
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"OK, great, but how many phones
can I charge from this, then?"
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And before I go to this
complicated answer of like,
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"Well, where is the table,
does it have enough light,
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is it next to a window?"
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The table now has sensors
that read the light intensity of the room.
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So through an app we developed
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you can literally follow
how much light it's getting,
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and how full the battery is.
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I'm actually proud, because
yesterday we installed a table
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at [unclear] offices here in Amsterdam
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and right at this moment,
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our Queen Maxima is charging
a phone from this table.
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It's cool.
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(Applause)
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So the more surface you have,
the more energy you can harvest.
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These are Current Windows,
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where we replaced all windows
in a gallery in London, in Soho,
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with this modern version of stained glass.
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So people from the street could come
and charge their phones
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through the window ledges.
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So I'm giving extra functions to objects.
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A window doesn't have to be
just a window anymore.
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It can also function
as a little power station.
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So, here I am, talking
about how much I love solar,
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but I don't have solar panels on my roof.
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I live in the center of Amsterdam,
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I don't own the house and it's a monument,
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so it's not possible and not allowed.
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So how can you make solar cells
more accessible and for everyone,
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and not only for the people
that can afford sustainable lifestyle?
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We now have the opportunity
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to integrate solar on the place
where we directly need it.
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And there are so many
amazing technologies out there.
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If I look around now,
I see every surface as an opportunity.
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For example, I was driving
in the train through the Westland,
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the area in the Netherlands
with all the greenhouses.
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There I saw all this glass and thought,
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what if we integrate those
with transparent solar glass?
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What if we integrate
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what combined traditional farming
that requires a lot of energy
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together with hi-tech and combine those?
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With this idea in mind,
I created Power Plant.
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I had a team of architects and engineers,
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but let me first explain how it works.
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We use transparent solar glass
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to power its indoor climate.
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We use hydroponics
that pumps around nutrified water,
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saving 90 percent of water usage.
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By stacking up layers, you are able
to grow more yield per square meter.
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Extra light, besides sunlight,
coming from these colored LED lights,
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also enhances plant growth.
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As more and more people
will live in big cities,
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by placing Power Plants on the rooftops
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you don't have to fly it in
from the other side of the world,
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you are able to grow it
on the location itself.
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Well the big dream is
to build these in off-grid places
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where there's no access
to water electricity,
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as an independent ecosystem.
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For this year's Design Biennial,
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I created the first four-meter high
model of the power plant,
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so you could come in
and experience how plants grow.
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So it's a double harvest of sunlight,
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so both for the solar cells
and for the plants.
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It's like a future botanical garden,
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where we celebrate
all these modern technologies.
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And the biggest compliment I got
was, "But where are the solar panels?"
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And that's when I think
design really works,
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when it becomes invisible
and you don't notice it.
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I believe in solar democracy:
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solar energy for everyone, everywhere.
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My aim is to make all surfaces productive.
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I want to build houses
where all the windows, curtains, walls,
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even floors are harvesting electricity.
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Think about this on a big scale,
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in cities there are so many surfaces.
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The sun is still available for everyone.
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And by integrating solar
on the place where we need it,
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we now have the opportunity to make
solar cells accessible for everyone.
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I want to bring solar
close to the people with you,
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but beautiful and well designed.
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Thank you.