The Smart Energy Systems challenge focuses on shifting from fossil fuel reliance to electricity as the primary energy source, requiring significant upgrades to infrastructure, technological innovation, and societal adaptation. The Circular Energy System challenge emphasizes the need to design energy systems that minimize waste, optimize resource use, and ensure sustainability through recycling and reusing materials across the energy value chain. The Digital Energy challenge highlights the role of advanced technologies in optimizing energy production, distribution, and consumption through smart systems, data-driven decision-making, and automation. The challenge of advancing in Carbon Management & Non-Fossil Fuels revolves around developing and scaling alternative energy sources and systems that are carbon-neutral, such as renewable energy technologies and innovative fuels like hydrogen and electrofuels. Lastly, the Societal Energy Transition challenge focuses on the processes needed for all levels of society to welcome the needed shift in energy.
Together, these five challenges serve as the guiding pillars for the transition to a resilient, low-carbon, and sustainable energy future. Addressing them holistically will require coordinated efforts from research, policy, industry, and society to achieve a global energy system that supports both environmental sustainability and social equity.
KC1: Smart Energy Systems
The Smart Energy Systems concept is essential for an energy-efficient and cost-effective implementation of a carbon neutral society. The concept includes a focus on energy efficiency and sector integration to establish energy system flexibility, harvest synergies by using all infrastructures and lower energy storage cost. As opposed to, for instance, the smart grid concept, which takes a sole focus on the electricity sector, the smart energy system’s approach includes the entire energy system in its identification of suitable energy infrastructure designs and operation strategies. The most effective and least costly solutions are to be found when the electricity sector is combined with the heating and cooling sectors and/or the transport sector. The combination of electricity and gas infrastructures may play an important role in the design of future renewable energy systems, and the electrification of heating and transport can play a pivotal role in providing flexibility and ensuring renewable energy integration in all sectors. Furthermore, the role of users as not only consumers but also producers and co-owners of infrastructure requires new insights. This overarching transformation demands substantial investment, coordinated policy support, public discussion, and democratic legitimacy, all of which are critical to successfully replace entrenched fossil fuel systems with efficient, renewable-powered electrical systems.
KC2: A Circular Energy System
Building a fossil-free energy system presents a significant challenge, but it is equally important to ensure that the technologies used are sustainable. This involves integrating these technologies into a circular economy to minimize the demand for new resources. For instance, in several countries, wind turbine blades often end up in landfills at the end of their life cycle instead of being recycled. Similarly, many current photovoltaic (PV) technologies rely heavily on materials that are mined, leading to various environmental issues. Correspondingly, there is a need for regulatory measures for these new markets (e.g. deep-sea mining). New business models as well as new forms of financing investments and for capturing value need to surface. Involving civil society, for instance citizens and local communities in decentralizing and energy storage solutions is a crucial part of this change. There is also a need for policies providing incentives for a circular economy (e.g. producer requirements).
KC3: Digital Energy
All of our energy-related infrastructures have been significantly modernized through advancements in digital technology. As an example, our current electricity grids comprise energy storage, and systems for aggregation and load management, which enhance the integration of intermittent energy sources. Upgraded information systems and digital solutions are improving service delivery, enhancing customer and supplier relationships, and boosting the performance and viability of electricity operators’ business models. Moreover, technological innovations such smart metering and cognitive controllers complemented by renewable, or hybrid energies are reshaping access policies in different sectors. These emerging digital solutions are already making a considerable impact on energy systems and will serve as powerful levers to accelerate energy transitions. Digital solutions open new business opportunities as well as for the radical transformation of existing solutions.
KC4: Carbon Management & Non-Fossil Fuels
Transitioning to a sustainable society requires a focus on carbon management and adopting non-fossil-based fuels. Carbon sources like biomass will play a key role in producing green fuels for sectors like shipping, aviation, heavy-duty vehicles, and peak load power plants. They are also essential for CCUS strategies, supporting both carbon capture and biochar solutions. A holistic approach, such as the concept of a smart energy system, is needed to scale renewable fuels like electrofuels, Power-to-X, and advanced biofuels to replace fossil fuels across sectors. This transition is crucial for reducing emissions and ensuring long-term sustainability. However, it involves challenges, including substantial investment in R&D, infrastructure upgrades, and supportive policies. Public debate and participation are essential, along with industrial transformation to improve competitiveness in Denmark's energy sector and economy.
From a human-centric perspective, integrating consumer input in adopting fossil-free technologies, like electric vehicles and smart meters, is vital in the short and medium term. Best practices for citizen involvement in local energy projects must be developed, ensuring democratic participation and ownership. Facilitating public debate on the fossil-free transition is essential for transparency and legitimacy. Long-term efforts should focus on education programs to enhance energy literacy for consumers, workers, and communities. Policies must ensure a just distribution of the benefits and challenges of the green energy transition, addressing disparities in income, geography, and living conditions. These challenges highlight the need for a balanced focus on technical resilience and social equity in building a sustainable and inclusive energy future.
KC5: Societal Energy Transition
For a proper transition to renewable energy, it is vital to prepare and motivate all levels of society into welcoming this shift to green energy. This key challenge focuses on the social processes of learning, participation, and collaboration at household, organizational, and societal levels. To achieve this total societal transition, a number of challenges must be met. On the individual side, an effort to enhance energy literacy via education and media must be made and designers must integrate user needs in household energy solutions. It is vital to develop local participation models for renewable projects and designate a space for facilitating the public debate on a fossil-free transition. On the societal scale, it is important to focus on strengthening cross-sector collaboration for fair resource distribution. With top-down incentives for advancing leadership models for green organizational change.
