By Steen Bruun Jensen, The visual artist #1 2023
There are all sorts of good reasons for installing solar panels, but so far not many of them have been aesthetic. A new technique makes it possible to print image files on conventional solar panels, so that they become a completely new medium for visual art to unfold in.
Fortunately, many more efficient, aesthetic, beautiful and economical solar panel solutions have appeared in recent years. This is good because, as was revealed in a recent article in Politiken, the global capacity in solar energy will roughly triple over the next five years and overtake coal as the world's most important energy source. Among other things, because colored, thin and flexible solar panels can now transform almost any outdoor surface into an energy source and thus allow the solar panels to blend in with black slate roofs and red tile roofs and house gables.
One of the biggest novelties in the field are so-called CFR-colored (Color, Form, Reflection) solar cell modules with graphics developed by Dansk Solenergi Aps Holeby on Lolland, which make it possible to integrate image files of any kind into solar panels without going significantly in compromise with energy production. One of the first attempts – simply a world premiere – was made in collaboration with visual artist Bo Karberg, who is behind the work 'Song of the Earth', which was set up in the autumn at Brugsen Købmandsbutik in Asp in Langhøj near Struer.
The work is part of the art project World Goal Gables, where 17 professional artists create 17 works of art in 17 different cities for the UN's 17 World Goals.
A completely new medium for the visual arts
"The theme around the 17 world goals - in this case the first of them, which is about poverty - inspired me to, in collaboration with Ken Hem Jensen from Dansk Solenergi, try to develop a technology where digital image files can be turned into functioning solar panels," says Bo Karberg.
Photo: Verner Nørby, Asp/Langhøj, Struer
The sound and light work of art – whose soundtrack was composed by the painter and composer Birgit Løkke – shows the iconic image taken of the earth from Apollo 11 in 1969, where for the first time we had the opportunity to see the earth from outside the universe, and where man also for the first time once stepped on the moon.
"The location at a convenience store should remind us of the importance of our actions and remind us of the importance of looking after our beautiful home in the universe," says Bo Karberg, who foresees a completely new artistic work area.
"The new solar modules with graphics provide a wide range of opportunities for visual artists to contribute to the green transition in new and exciting ways. "Solar panels can come in all sorts of shapes, and to a certain extent can also be bowed and bent, so it will certainly become a completely new medium for visual artists to express themselves in and at the same time give a boost to the whole area," he says.
Bo Karberg and Dansk Solenergi Aps are inviting this spring to a seminar where artists and architects will get an introduction to the new technique and hopefully a lot of inspiration for how visual art can go hand in hand with the production of sustainable solar energy in the future.
Further information can be obtained by contacting https://danishsolarenergy.com/da/ or Bo Karberg at karberg@post.tele.dk.