Henrik Lund is MSc Eng and Professor in Energy Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds a PhD in the Implementation of Sustainable Energy Systems (1990), and a Dr Techn in Choice Awareness and Renewable Energy Systems (2009). Henrik Lund is a highly ranked world-leading researcher.
For more than 10 successive years, he is listed among ISI Highly Cited researchers, ranking him among the top 1% researchers in the world within engineering, and is on the Stanford list of top 2% scientists. He is member of The Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV) and has been awarded the Royal Order of Chivalry of the Dannebrog. For 16 years, Henrik Lund was Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier’s high-impact journal Energy and the founding editor of the journal Smart Energy. He is now EiC of Energy Strategy Reviews .
He is the author of more than 500 books and articles including the book ”Renewable Energy Systems”. He is the architect behind the advanced energy system analysis software EnergyPLAN, which is a freeware used worldwide that have formed the basis of more than 300 peer-reviewed journal papers around the world.
In the transition towards sustainable energy systems, reducing emissions and expanding the use of renewable energy are essential. However, as political ambitions increasingly shift towards achieving climate-neutral societies, carbon management becomes equally important.
When striving to optimise the management of carbon flows in a climate-neutral system, obviously all significant demands and emissions of carbon must be included, i.e., greenhouse gas emissions from forestry, agriculture, and industrial processes, as well as the climate impacts of aviation contrails, alongside emissions from the energy system. However, the wish for climate-neutral societies is rarely the only political goal. Other goals exist such as increasing biodiversity and securing clean drinking water while still producing enough food. The problem is cross-sectoral, and so is the solution.
With the case of Denmark, we demonstrate how a cross-disciplinary approach makes it possible to identify smart energy systems and better carbon management solutions within the limitations of several environmental political goals. We demonstrate how the cost of implementing the Danish political target of a 110% emissions reduction (i.e., net-minus) by 2050 compared to 1990 may be reduced, with estimated savings exceeding 50% under territorial emissions accounting.
Smart Energy Systems and Carbon Management in Climate Neutral Societies