Marianne Zeyringer is one of the finalists of the Nordic Energy Challenge, participating in the final with her idea; Unlocking the renewable energy potential in the Nordics – Energy systems modelling as a tool to understand opposition and increase acceptance and collaboration.
The Nordic Energy Challenge has asked Marianne Zeyringer to talk a little about her idea.
What is your idea about?
The idea is about bringing researchers from different scientific disciplines and artists together to; firstly to use energy systems modelling as a participatory tool to understand Nordic citizens’ visions of future energy systems and collaboration across countries, and secondly to discuss those co-designed energy futures with the public through artistic performances.
Why and how did you come up with your idea?
I am a power system modeller, and our models are usually cost optimising. Wind energy has decreased in cost dramatically over the last years. It thus represents a cost-effective decarbonisation solution. The Nordics have excellent wind energy resources and as a result when we as modellers are trying to see how to reach the Paris Agreement Goal for Europe, our models would place lots of wind energy in the Nordics. When I was working in the UK there was quite a lot of local opposition towards onshore wind energy. We showed with our studies that when excluding good sites from development decarbonising the energy system will be much more expensive.
From this experience I have learned that it is important to get people involved in the green transition and to figure out how it is possible to meet public scepticism and opposition.
Usually energy and power system modellers sit in their universities or research institutes, defining scenarios and publishing reports mostly aimed at other academics or policy makers. There is hardly any input from lay people into the design of the scenarios and models and little communication from researchers to the public in general. However, with a pressing urgency to mitigate climate change and making the energy transition successful we need the people to be on board.
How does your idea contribute to the green transition?
The aims of the project are to involve the Nordic citizens and make them realize that they have a huge impact on the energy transition. We will have mixed groups from different countries to see if the experience of jointly designing scenarios changes the people’s willingness to contribute “more” in their own country. We will understand under which conditions people are willing to work together to transform each country’s energy system.
Hopefully, the results of the project will inspire policy makers to design net-zero energy systems which are supported by the public and give insights on collaboration possibilities, barriers and solutions.
Why is an event as the Nordic Energy Challenge important?
The Nordic Energy Challenge gives the opportunity to think creatively and completely outside existing disciplinary boundaries. I look forward to meeting the other researchers and maybe develop a joint proposal. I sincerely hope that the Nordic Energy Challenge contributes to an increased awareness and allows the audience to understand the challenges in reaching the energy transition. Last, but not least, Nordic Energy Challenge gives me insight into different out of the box solutions.
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