The Solar Share by Disnovation

Sustainability is a key term in environmental policy, but what does “sustainable” actually mean? The Solar Share proposes a sustainability-oriented economic model revolving around the sunlight harvested in photosynthetic organisms.

Firstly, we propose to develop a data visualization/map of planetary scale photosynthesis to help represent how much new energy is entering the Earth’s system every year, in the form of biomass. We are interested in visually comparing this annual photosynthetic energy income to the overall energy consumed by humanity.

Secondly, we propose to build a one-square-meter photo-bioreactor, where microalgae are cultivated. In doing so, the Solar Share becomes an invitation to explore how human energy requirements depend on photosynthesis, in both direct and indirect forms (i.e. food, fossil fuels).

Once the microalgae are harvested and turned into edible biomass tablets, this project proposes to introduce a new economic unit: The Solar Share. Practically, one Solar Share is defined as the biomass produced on one square meter of the Earth’s surface — on average — in one year. Shelf-stable algae tablets are proposed here as a form of currency that is at once a consumable store of energy and a stabilized photosynthetic proof of work, that can be exchanged for other commodities or saved and stored.

The Solar Share allows users to explore a radical bioeconomic model, where human metabolism as well as modern lifestyle energy needs, are understood as factors of the sunlight captured in the biosphere. This artwork challenges customary understandings of economic “value”, and speculates how to reformulate the sustainability challenges of human beings within planetary affordances, as reproduced through renewable solar income.