Introduction with Nikolaj K. Vedel-Smith

How can the 150+ year old “andelstanke” (the cooperative idea) be a key ingredient in transforming our current energy system into a sustainable and modern distributed energy solution?

Techno-economic models tell us that, to reach the ambitious climate goals, wind and solar are the most cost-effective strategies. How much wind and solar should be installed and where should they be installed? How do we engage citizens to play a more active role in the green transition, to avoid the local resistance that is usually met when external investors set up wind and solar farms?

In this talk, Marta Victoria, Parisa Rahdan, and Zhe Zhang from Aarhus University will try to address these questions and share their learnings from the EU research project AURORA.

Participants get a better understanding of the different European energy transition scenarios and learn about the benefits of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems despite higher installation costs compared to ground-mounted solar farms. Lastly, participants get to learn first-hand how a community solar project co-owned by students and employees is implemented at Aarhus University using the Danish cooperative spirit.

Program

• 15:00-15:10 Welcome and introduction
• 15:10-15:30 European energy transition outlook: What we know from large-scale energy systems modelling (Marta Victoria)
• 15:30-15:50 Benefits of rooftop PV for the European energy system (Parisa Rahdan)
• 15:50-16:10 Community solar with Danish approach: Our experiences and lessons learnt (Zhe Zhang)
• 16:10-16:30 Q&A

Marta Victoria is an Associate Professor at Aarhus University, where she develops and applies models of large-scale energy systems with high renewable penetration. She also investigates novel photovoltaic system designs including agrivoltaics and energy communities based on shared rooftop solar installations.