The role of solar energy in society

In 2018, Prof Wilfried van Sark was appointed Professor in Integration of Photovoltaic Solar Energy. The inaugural lecture he held on 31 October 2019 was recorded and is available online.

The presence of solar energy in society is hard to miss. You see patchworks of blue solar panels on many roofs, and these generate large amounts of electricity, to the great satisfaction of the over half a million solar panel owners in the Netherlands. Around noon on mild, sunny days, these solar panels jointly generate up to a third of the electricity we need. The annual figure is lower, of course, but is at least three percent.

In his inaugural lecture, Van Sark talked about the controversies surrounding the growth in solar energy. Many people feel that the aesthetics of solar panels could be improved, but wouldn't it just be better to integrate them into buildings so they are invisible or barely noticeable? How do we collectively ensure that this market keeps growing the way it should? Van Sark answers these questions and others in his inaugural lecture. If you don't have time to watch it, you can download the text as a PDF (only available in Dutch).