DK / EN

ENERGY RESEARCH

Citizens’ participation in energy projects

The project investigates how citizens and local agents can participate actively in new sustainable energy projects in the current situation and market conditions.

“Support from the Vissing Foundation enables us to collect and analyse the latest knowledge on new models for collaboration and forms of organisation. This knowledge will be translated into practical recommendations, which will help local communities to become active co-agents in energy reorganisation, and is expected to have a positive effect on local developments and economy,” explains Karl Sperling, Associate Professor, M.Sc. Eng., Ph.D.,Sustainable Energy Planning Group at Aalborg University.

The project is based on a number of specific renewable energy projects, which combine commercial aspects with local considerations, and which can turn local resistance into active co-management and commitment.

The project is also founded on the world-famous Danish history of locally-based renewable energy projects, and shows clearly how this history can be brought up to date and made relevant to the ongoing energy restructuring in major commercial projects. With focus on specific local participation in developing renewable energy, our project will help to show the way out of the real situation in which projects are delayed or cancelled. This is often due to local resistance which obstructs the restructuring of energy. The project therefore makes an important contribution to achieving the Danish climate goals by 2030. It does so by pointing out new or overlooked possibilities in connection with reactivating the local foundations of renewable energy.