The first stage of the Nordic Energy Challenge 2024 is concluded, with seven candidates advancing to the second phase. The next step for the qualified participants is to submit their final proposals by 23 August.

Meet this year’s challengers, one by one, and gain insight into their ideas in support of Citizen Engagement. Two of the applicants are Julia Kirch Kirkegaard and Tom Cronin.

Julia Kirch Kirkegaard, Associate Professor, and Tom Cronin, Senior Adviser at DTU Wind and Energy Systems.

  • Name: Julia Kirch Kirkegaard and Tom Cronin
  • Position: Associate Professor and Senior Advisor 
  • Institution: DTU Wind and Energy Systems (Society, Market & Policy Section, SMP)
  • Name of idea: Inventive tools for public participation in the design of an integrated Baltic Energy region
  • Summary of idea: Our innovation puts energy transition design tools under the microscope, experimenting with what manner of values they include and exclude. We develop an approach that moves away from the conventional, but rather inflexible, approach that consults citizens at the planning and development phases. We aim to provide opportunities for a radical new way of engaging with citizens and their values in the Nordic and especially Baltic region, by addressing the root reason why local opposition arises: space for meaning consultation is already closed out in the design phase. This design phase is where we will intervene, using the emerging concept of Energy Islands throughout the Baltic Sea.