The beautiful future of solar power

The sun delivers more energy to earth in one hour than all of humanity uses in an entire year. How can we make this power more accessible to everyone, everywhere? Solar designer Marjan van Aubel shows how she's turning everyday objects like tabletops and stained glass windows into elegant solar cells -- and shares her vision to make every surface a power station.

Last summer, I was hiking
through the Austrian mountains.

And there, on top, I saw
this beautiful, stone, remote hut,

and it had solar panels on it.

And every time I see solar panels,
I get very enthusiastic.

It's this technology that takes sunlight,
which is free and available,

and turns that into electricity.

So this hut, in the middle of nowhere,
on a beautiful location,

was self-sufficient.

But why do solar panels
always have to be so ugly?

(Laughter)

My name is Marjan Van Aubel
and I'm a solar designer.

I work in the triangle of design,
sustainability and technology.

I strive for extreme efficiency,

meaning that I develop materials
that expand in size

or work with solar cells
that use the properties of colors

to generate electricity.

My work is in museums
all over the world, such as MoMA.

And, I mean, it all went quite well,

but it always felt
that something was missing.

And it was, until I read the book
called the "Solar Revolution,"

where it says that within one hour
we receive enough sunlight

to provide the world
with enough electricity

for an entire year.

One hour.

And since then, I realized
I just want to focus on solar.

Scientists all over the world

have been focusing on making
solar panels more efficient and cheaper.

So the price of solar
has dropped enormously.

And this is because China
started producing them on a large scale.

And also their efficiency
has increased a lot.

They now even have an efficiency
of 44.5 percent.

But if you think
about the image of solar cells,

it's kind of stayed the same
for the last 60 years.

It's still this technology
just stacked onto something.

And solar cells need to be much better
integrated into our environment.

Climate change is the biggest
problem of our time.

And we can't rely on the others --
the government, the engineers --

to make positive changes.

We all can contribute towards change.

Like I said, I'm a designer

and I would like to change
things through design.

Let me give you some examples of my work.

I'm collaborating with Swarovski,
the crystal company.

And if you cut crystals in a certain way,

you are able to bend and direct the light
onto a certain place.

So I use these crystals
to focus the light onto a solar panel,

making them more efficient,
but using aesthetics.

So you take the solar crystal
with you in the light,

there's a battery in the solar cell,

you put it in a docking station

and you are able to power
these chandeliers.

So you're literally
bringing the light indoors.

I got completely hooked on solar
when I came across this technology

called dye-sensitized solar cells,

colored solar cells,

and they are based
on photosynthesis in plants.

Where the green chlorophyl
converts light into sugar for plants,

these cells convert light
into electricity.

The best thing is, they even work indoors.

So different colors
have different efficiency,

depending on their place
on the color spectrum.

So, for example,
red is more efficient than blue.

So if I hear this as a designer:

a colored surface,
a glass colored surface,

color that's mostly
just used for esthetics,

now gets an extra function
and is able to harvest electricity,

I think, where can we apply this, then?

This is Current Table,

where the whole tabletop
consists of these colored solar cells.

There are batteries in the legs

where you can charge your phone
through USB ports.

And in my work,
it's always very important,

the balance between
efficiency and aesthetics.

So that's why the table is orange,

because it is a very stable
color for indoors.

And this is always
the most asked question I get:

"OK, great, but how many phones
can I charge from this, then?"

And before I go to this
complicated answer of like,

"Well, where is the table,
does it have enough light,

is it next to a window?"

The table now has sensors
that read the light intensity of the room.

So through an app we developed

you can literally follow
how much light it's getting,

and how full the battery is.

I'm actually proud,
because yesterday we installed a table

at Stichting Doen's offices in Amsterdam

and, right at this moment,

our Queen Maxima is charging
a phone from this table.

It's cool.

(Applause)

So the more surface you have,
the more energy you can harvest.

These are Current Windows,

where we replaced all windows
in a gallery in London, in Soho,

with this modern version of stained glass.

So people from the street
could come and charge their phones

through the window ledges.

So I'm giving extra functions to objects.

A window doesn't have to be
just a window anymore.

It can also function
as a little power station.

So, here I am, talking
about how much I love solar,

but I don't have solar panels on my roof.

I live in the center of Amsterdam,

I don't own the house and it's a monument,

so it's not possible and not allowed.

So how can you make solar cells
more accessible and for everyone,

and not only for the people
that can afford a sustainable lifestyle?

We now have the opportunity

to integrate solar on the place
where we directly need it.

And there are so many
amazing technologies out there.

If I look around now,
I see every surface as an opportunity.

For example, I was driving
in the train through the Westland,

the area in the Netherlands
with all the greenhouses.

There I saw all this glass and thought,

what if we integrate those
with transparent solar glass?

What if we integrate traditional farming

that requires a lot of energy

together with high-tech and combine those?

With this idea in mind,
I created Power Plant.

I had a team of architects and engineers,

but let me first explain how it works.

We use transparent solar glass

to power its indoor climate.

We use hydroponics
that pumps around nutrified water,

saving 90 percent of water usage.

By stacking up in layers, you are able
to grow more yield per square meter.

Extra light, besides sunlight,
coming from these colored LED lights

also enhances plant growth.

As more and more people
will live in big cities,

by placing Power Plants on the rooftops

you don't have to fly it in
from the other side of the world,

you are able to grow it
on the location itself.

Well, the big dream is
to build these in off-grid places --

where there's no access
to water, electricity --

as an independent ecosystem.

For this year's Design Biennial,

I created the first four-meter high
model of the power plant,

so you could come in
and experience how plants grow.

So it's a double harvest of sunlight,

so both for the solar cells
and for the plants.

It's like a future botanical garden,

where we celebrate
all these modern technologies.

And the biggest compliment I got was,
"But where are the solar panels?"

And that's when I think
design really works,

when it becomes invisible
and you don't notice it.

I believe in solar democracy:

solar energy for everyone, everywhere.

My aim is to make all surfaces productive.

I want to build houses
where all the windows, curtains, walls,

even floors are harvesting electricity.

Think about this on a big scale:

in cities, there are so many surfaces.

The sun is still available for everyone.

And by integrating solar
on the place where we need it,

we now have the opportunity to make
solar cells accessible for everyone.

I want to bring solar
close to the people with you,

but beautiful and well designed.

Thank you.