Energy Revitalisation

How can we trans­ition from thermo-indus­trial soci­et­ies, which rely largely on carbon-emit­ting fossil fuels, to still-indus­trial soci­et­ies (since it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capit­al­ism) whose energy consump­tion would come primar­ily from renew­able sources – recur­rent biody­namic forces (water, wind, geothermal and solar) native to our planet? This requires chan­ging the energy source in many areas: mobil­ity, heat­ing and most indus­tries will need to be powered by elec­tri­city.

This massive elec­tri­fic­a­tion of uses requires a signi­fic­ant restruc­tur­ing of our energy systems. The tech­no­lo­gical and systemic chal­lenges are numer­ous, partic­u­larly in terms of stor­age – to address the inher­ent inter­mit­tency of renew­able ener­gies – and adapt­ing distri­bu­tion infra­struc­tures (cable networks) to peaks and troughs in produc­tion. Regard­ing solar energy, it is also neces­sary to improve the effi­ciency of photo­vol­taic cells, and the strength and durab­il­ity of panels; and to design products and supply chains in a circu­lar manner to recycle compon­ents. These issues are on the way to being resolved, and engin­eers are work­ing on them, but there remains a funda­mental obstacle: the accept­ance – desirab­il­ity, even – of renew­able ener­gies, because, unlike fossil fuel plants, the arti­facts that produce these decar­bon­ised ener­gies are diffi­cult to hide.

For the first time in human history, solar energy is the cheapest source of elec­tri­city produc­tion. So, why isn’t it more widely adop­ted? For most people, solar energy evokes images of blue, or some­times black, reflect­ive panels, identical and the same size, fixed on pre-exist­ing surfaces, produ­cing energy only when it’s sunny. Many people find the panels ugly and intrus­ive. Unsur­pris­ingly, local move­ments protest against their large-scale install­a­tion in public or natural spaces, includ­ing even in alpine envir­on­ments.

To accel­er­ate the energy trans­ition and make it access­ible to all, it is crucial to address these social and cultural barri­ers. It is time to diver­sify the aesthetic and formal approaches to the energy trans­ition: to adapt them to the specific char­ac­ter­ist­ics of each of our cities, to our coun­tryside, moun­tains and regions, while integ­rat­ing local values. It is also import­ant to address the changes in usage brought about by this energy restruc­tur­ing, partic­u­larly in terms of decent­ral­isa­tion and demo­cratic engage­ment – in other words, to build mean­ing­ful daily rela­tion­ships rather than simply provid­ing a tech­no­cratic response driven by climate require­ments. View­ing solar energy from a design perspect­ive – seeing it as a mater­ial rather than just a tech­nique – helps shift the focus from effi­ciency and costs. An increas­ing number of design­ers have adop­ted a broader perspect­ive in their work on solar energy. Through their propos­als, they refine the aesthet­ics of mater­i­als, the qual­it­ies of inter­ac­tion, the rela­tion­ships with context, and the cultural and mater­ial values that solar energy can help develop.

Is that an elephant in the room? Although proven solu­tions are already avail­able, the chal­lenge of trans­form­ing our energy mix remains immense. To meet the grow­ing needs of the elec­tri­fic­a­tion of uses – from heat­ing build­ings to elec­tric mobil­ity and indus­trial processes – we would need an increase from 26,000 TWh of elec­tri­city consumed world­wide in 2023, of which sixty per cent was still produced from fossil resources, to 50,000 TWh by 2050, with a share of nuclear power in some national strategies. The Inter­na­tional Energy Agency (IEA) estim­ates an annual growth of 600 GW of photo­vol­ta­ics, 160 GW of wind power, and 30 GW of hydro­power until 2030. World Energy Trans­itions Outlook 2023, a report by the Inter­na­tional Renew­able Energy Agency (IRENA), suggests that a photo­vol­taic solar capa­city of approx­im­ately 14,000 GW could be installed by 2050. To give an order of magnitude, 1 GW of solar capa­city requires five to ten square kilo­metres of solar panels, depend­ing on their perform­ance and sunlight expos­ure. To achieve 14,000 GW, between 70,000 and 140,000 square kilo­metres of solar panels would need to be installed world­wide, which is between two and four times the area of Switzer­land. This ambi­tion requires paus­ing for a moment to consider the objects that prom­ised a bright future: solar panels, partic­u­larly the recently developed ones that integ­rate into build­ings and offer a new aesthet­ics.