By Frederik Victor Kobbelgaard, Department of Sustainability and Planning, og Susanne Togeby, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

The global analytics company Clarivate released their annual list of Highly Cited Researchers on November 15, 2023. The analysis is based on the number and impact of citations from peers in the research community.

Henrik Lund, Professor in Energy Planning at the Department of Sustainability and Planning, has made this list for 10 consecutive years, placing him among an extremely exclusive percentile of the world's researchers according to Clarivate. Only two other Danish researchers have maintained a presence on the list for such an extended period.

Henrik Lund is behind the theory of 'Choice Awareness' and the tool EnergyPLAN

Professor Henrik Lund is a remarkable example of academic excellence in sustainable energy research.

Since 1983, Lund has been instrumental in shaping sustainable energy strategies and policies worldwide. His contributions include projects such as Green Energy for Bornholm and the Heat Roadmap Europe studies as well as an advisory role in the Energy Strategies of the Danish Association of Engineers.

Lund's innovative Choice Awareness theory from 2009 deals with how to implement radical technological changes such as renewable energy systems, which will also imply organizational and institutional changes in society.

Choice Awareness theory emphasizes the condition that different existing organizational interests will seek to keep radical technological changes out of the agenda at many levels. In many cases, this condition leads to a situation of no choice. As a society, we are subject to a collective perception that, e.g., “We have no choice but to build another coal-fired power station”. The Choice Awareness theory, however, maintains the claim that this is not true: We do have a choice. The theory tells us how to be aware of this choice, thus, enabling us to debate our common future and make better decisions.

Another of Lund’s creations, the EnergyPLAN tool has revolutionized the analysis and design of sustainable energy solutions across 100 countries. EnergyPLAN is an energy system analysis tool created for studying and researching the design of future sustainable energy solutions with a special focus on energy systems with high shares of renewable energy sources.

Lund’s scholarly work comprises over 600 publications, with an h-index of 81 and more than 23,000 citations on Google Scholar.

More information:

Read more about Highly Cited Researchers and criteria and methodology for the analysis at Clarivate.