Sophie Nyborg

Wind2050 – a transdisciplinary research partnership about wind energy

Strategic orientation and priority setting in energy planning are high on the political agenda in Denmark due to the ambitious national goal of fossil-free energy systems. One key issue concerns the involvement of stakeholders – and non-expert stakeholders in particular – in discussions on how to increase wind power installations (see also the contribution by Olsen in this volume). Another key issue is the emphasis on long-term societal interests and future possibilities regarding changes in the innovation system of wind power, i. e., how to take into account citizens’ multiple concerns regarding the impact of wind turbines on aspects such as environment and health or what is perceived as an unfair distribution of economic gains, as well as how wind turbines could contribute to local development or be seen as a local contribution to a national transition of the energy system. This calls for a transdisciplinary approach to science and innovation based on an exhaustive contextual understanding of interplay, divergences and relationships between stakeholders and methods for transparent strategic priority setting in research.