Jan Fjornes

Jan Fjornes works as Manager in adelphi's energy team. He co-leads the "Social Energy Transition & Participation" cluster alongside Sophia Stock. In addition to the production of renewable energy, he sees the reduction of final energy consumption as a central pillar of the energy transition. In his opinion, both approaches must focus on the relevant actors if they are to be successful. On the one hand, this means that energy research and models have to consider the actual behavior of the heterogeneous actors and its implications for energy systems. On the other hand, this means that the energy transition must be shaped and implemented together with actors from politics and administration, civil society, business and research. His focus is primarily on local actors and processes. Accordingly, he works in a range of topics between heterodox approaches to the evaluation and development of energy efficiency strategies and policies and the collaborative, socially acceptable and democratic design of the energy transition.

"We don't need a “better” society. We need a "good" society. It must be both democratic and within planetary boundaries. As a social project, the energy transition must also meet both criteria. Democracy is not only important from a social point of view. Democracy and the participation of the population in the energy transition are also central to the success of a sustainable energy transition. Because the population is essentially innovative and their acceptance of the energy transition increases the more the population is involved.”